Windows 8 Apps Nightmare


Recommended Posts

So, I bought Technet and have been using Windows 8 from a clean install for about a month now.

All of a sudden, I wasn't able to update or install some Apps.

I found a solution to the problem by using...

net stop wuauserv

rename c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution softwaredistribution.old

net start wuauserv

Now, it seems there is another problem. I'm looking at the Games App and it says "sorry this app can't be installed because your system doesn't meet the system requirements." It is installed though, and aren't the system requirements simply Windows 8? Luckily I had this in my "purchased apps" so I was able to install it from there without issue.

I'm beginning to think that Windows 8 is going to be a huge disaster when it comes to the App Store. It randomly stops working and tells you that you can't install apps. WTF was Microsoft thinking?

Also...I have 2 Updates to be installed...but where?

P.S. - The MAPS App is gone from the Store.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1111221-windows-8-apps-nightmare/
Share on other sites

^ A Windows Update ? They normally install themselves.

No, when I click on the Updates in the App Store the list comes up empty. It seems to be a common issue.

Sounds like you're having some funky issues with screwed up system files or something.

What are the specs on the machine, and have you tried verifying that the checksums match up for the install media vs the information presented on TechNet?

I'm not the only one having this exact issue.

Microsoft ****ed up.

Got it. For some crazy reason I thought you might want some troubleshooting help...nope not at all.

Another whining without any intent to actually troubleshoot or try to learn anything here folks...nothing to see.

WTF is there to troubleshoot? My initial problem was Apps wouldn't update or install. I found the solution in these forums and posted it in my first post. That fixed most of my problems.

I'm not whining. I'm stating a simple ****ing fact. The Windows 8 App Store is fundamentally broken.

P.S. My hashes are fine compared to Technet. The problem lies in a broken update system for the App Store. Microsoft needs to address this issue with a patch or it is going to be in a world of pain. There is no reason an App Store should suddenly stop working or refuse to update/install Apps.

Oh well...I guess my dad knows best. He never switches to a new Windows until a Service Pack is available.

At least everything else is working right, except for my sound. Creative really needs to put out some new drivers so I won't have to keep installing them again after every restart.

I was going to post a long reply to you on this, but I'm going to let it go. Keep believing whatever it is you want to believe. :punk:

A long reply? Don't waste your time or mine. I have nothing against you. In fact, I think you're probably an all around good guy.

In any case, don't get worked up about me feeling that Windows 8 is somewhat incomplete and broken. I'm not the first one with this issue and I sure as hell won't be the last. I just don't get why I had to troubleshoot in the first place. This is the new Windows. This is Microsoft's baby. There's things about it I love and things about it that make me scratch my head. Valve Software seems to hate it, even though I can't find anything wrong with it besides some odd design choices.

Windows 8 will either be Microsoft's rebirth or its death. It's as simple as that. I'm hoping it will be its rebirth, but it might need a C-section on the way out.

A long reply? Don't waste your time or mine. I have nothing against you. In fact, I think you're probably an all around good guy.

In any case, don't get worked up about me feeling that Windows 8 is somewhat incomplete and broken. I'm not the first one with this issue and I sure as hell won't be the last. I just don't get why I had to troubleshoot in the first place. This is the new Windows. This is Microsoft's baby. There's things about it I love and things about it that make me scratch my head. Valve Software seems to hate it, even though I can't find anything wrong with it besides some odd design choices.

Windows 8 will either be Microsoft's rebirth or its death. It's as simple as that. I'm hoping it will be its rebirth, but it might need a C-section on the way out.

Because sometimes things can interact with the system (such as drivers or various other pieces of software that require admin rights) in unexpected ways. So sometimes troubleshooting (especially on a brand new OS) can help you find a solution that doesn't require much work, or that can be a permanent fix instead of a stop-gap.

For instance I have a really annoying persistent issue with Flash in Windows 8. It affects not only IE10 (both the Metro and Desktop version), but also affects Firefox even though Firefox is running a completely different independent version of Flash. This doesn't happen on Win7 on the same machine, nor does it occur in Windows 7 on my laptop. My next step is to test Win8 on that laptop to see if it occurs there as well. If it doesn't I'm going to start looking at hardware.

I'm thinking it might be something to do with my graphics card (Radeon HD3850) that isn't being supported by the manufacturer for Windows 8. Sure there are inbox drivers, and the old WIn7 drivers are working, but they are dropping support for this card entirely anyways.

Things like that can crop up that you wouldn't expect...no matter how new or old an OS is.

See longer post than I wanted to make about it. :p

My specs...

Windows 8 Professional x64 / Cooler Master HAF X / Antec High Current Pro 1200W Power Supply / ASUS P6T Deluxe / Intel Core i7 940 / 24 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz XMP / eVGA GeForce 465 GTX SSC / Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD / Bigfoot Networks Killer NIC 2100 / Western Digital RE2 500 GB RAID 0 / Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Gaming Keyboard / Razer Mamba Gaming Mouse / Razer IronClad Gaming Mat / Razer Mako 2.1 THX Speakers / Razer Carcharias Gaming Headset / Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ / NVIDIA 3D Vision Glasses / Pioneer BDR-206 Blu-ray Disc Rewriter

It was working fine when I first installed Windows, but now the App Store is acting weird. Maybe they're updating it on their end.

The (2) Updates for Apps returned, though there are no updates to install.

the fact that it isnt available to everyone yet means they have to time to test and tweak, now all the problems u have i dont have. my app store works it updates fine and my machine is much lower spec than yours, something easily could have gone wrong maybe they pulled the app from the app store or pulled the update and your machine haddnt registered or whatever who knows, but windows 8 is far from fundamentally broken

The (2) Updates for Apps returned, though there are no updates to install.

I had the same problem yesterday,but after a restart the 2 updates showed up on Windows Store.

In my case it was Finance and Sports but that depends of course on which updates you have installed.

You can also try checking manually for the app updates from within the Store by going to Settings-App updates.

Win8 regarding testing is unfortunately the 2012 Vista, I've found bugs even while running the setup! Poor translations, strings that disappear, the store that randomly decides to show updates that don't exist and the Metro UI becoming extremely unreliable when you don't shut down the machine for days. The rest of the OS is fine but the Metro part seems like a beta at best, I hope the applications updates will improve the situation over time. Usually a reboot fixes the issues though, I've never had to mess with the windows update catalogs yet.

If you want to have fun open the setup, chose install and when it asks for the product key click on the on-screen keyboard and then close it, it will never re-open again, a thing that even the dumbest tester wouldn't have missed.

I had the same problem yesterday,but after a restart the 2 updates showed up on Windows Store.

In my case it was Finance and Sports but that depends of course on which updates you have installed.

You can also try checking manually for the app updates from within the Store by going to Settings-App updates.

I restarted and it showed no updates. A few minutes later it is showing 2 updates again. Either way, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm glad I got Games working again. It had previously stalled on Pending for about 2 weeks until I restarted the service. I was having a huge issue with not being able to log into Games for Windows Live for my games. It's working now, but I'll still do a format and clean install in the future. That is, when Creative updates their horrid beta drivers.

My specs...

Windows 8 Professional x64 / Cooler Master HAF X / Antec High Current Pro 1200W Power Supply / ASUS P6T Deluxe / Intel Core i7 940 / 24 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz XMP / eVGA GeForce 465 GTX SSC / Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD / Bigfoot Networks Killer NIC 2100 / Western Digital RE2 500 GB RAID 0 / Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Gaming Keyboard / Razer Mamba Gaming Mouse / Razer IronClad Gaming Mat / Razer Mako 2.1 THX Speakers / Razer Carcharias Gaming Headset / Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ / NVIDIA 3D Vision Glasses / Pioneer BDR-206 Blu-ray Disc Rewriter

It was working fine when I first installed Windows, but now the App Store is acting weird. Maybe they're updating it on their end.

The (2) Updates for Apps returned, though there are no updates to install.

what else did you install on top of Windows 8? any codec packs or other hacks?

Well Windows Update just installed the cumulative update and now my App Store says I'm not connected to the internet. Also Windows Update no longer works.

I don't recommend anyone install the update just yet.

UPDATE:

"WindowsUpdate_8024A000 OR WindowsUpdate_dt000"

Ran the Troubleshooter and it resolved the problem. Seems a bunch of services didn't start when the computer restarted. What a mess!

Careful with applications like Diskeeper 12. Windows 8 is not oficially supported, some funky compatibility issues can show up. I got a warning with Perfect Disk 12, so I didn't install it.

Anyway, if you keep having issues, maybe it's time to try one of the new Windows 8 features, "Refresh My PC". You just need to reinstall your apps after, and maybe skip some like Diskeeper 12.

I updated around 10 hours ago and never really had any problems. Been running it the whole time. The 'invisible' update is nothing new. I had been experiencing that since RP. I also had that 2 updates on the Store with nothing showing up even if I manually look for updates until a Travel update comes up when I manually check just a while ago. 1 more left. I don't have an idea with how Store updates work, but is it possible that somehow, an update is "scheduled" but not necessarily pushed through right away?

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Win11Debloat 2026.06.14 by Razvan Serea Win11Debloat is a lightweight, easy to use PowerShell script that allows you to quickly declutter and customize your Windows experience. It can remove pre-installed bloatware apps, disable telemetry, remove intrusive interface elements and much more. The script also includes many features that system administrators and power users will enjoy. Such as a powerful command-line interface, support for Windows Audit mode and the option to make changes to other Windows users. All changes made by Win11Debloat can be easily reversed, and most removed apps can be restored via the Microsoft Store. A full guide on how to undo the changes is available here. Win11Debloat features: Below is an overview of the key features and functionality offered by Win11Debloat. Please refer to the wiki for more information about the default settings preset. Remove a wide variety of preinstalled apps. Click here for more info. Disable telemetry, diagnostic data, activity history, app-launch tracking & targeted ads. Disable tips, tricks, suggestions & ads across Windows. Disable Windows location services & app location access. Disable Find My Device location tracking. Disable 'Windows Spotlight' and tips & tricks on the lock screen. Disable 'Windows Spotlight' desktop background option. Disable ads, suggestions and the MSN news feed in Microsoft Edge. Hide Microsoft 365 ads on the Settings 'Home' page, or hide the 'Home' page entirely. Disable & remove Microsoft Copilot. Disable Windows Recall. Disable Click to Do, AI text & image analysis tool. Prevent AI service (WSAIFabricSvc) from starting automatically. Disable AI Features in Edge. Disable AI Features in Paint. Disable AI Features in Notepad. Disable the Drag Tray for sharing & moving files. Restore the old Windows 10 style context menu. Turn off Enhance Pointer Precision, also known as mouse acceleration. Disable the Sticky Keys keyboard shortcut. Disable Storage Sense automatic disk cleanup. Disable fast start-up to ensure a full shutdown. ...and more. Once you’ve downloaded the Win11Debloat file (Get.ps1), just follow these quick steps: Locate the Get.ps1 script file. Right-click the file and select Run with PowerShell from the context menu. If prompted by User Account Control (UAC), select Yes to grant the script the necessary administrative permissions. Win11Debloat 2026.06.14 changes: This is a minor release that hopefully addresses the false positives in Windows Defender and Bitdefender that prevented users from downloading and/or running Win11Debloat. Refactor Get-RegFileOperations.ps1 to address false positives by @Raphire in #626 Add logging around WinGet app retrieval and increase timeout to 20s by @Raphire Download: Win11Debloat 2026.06.14 | Open Source View: Win11Debloat Home Page | Screenshots 1| 2 Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Still using Microsoft Money 2005 in 2026 here!
    • I have a couple to mention, and they still run great on Windows 11 Adobe Lightroom Version 2 Alcohol 120% CLZ Book, Comic, Game, Movie, & Music Collector (PC - No longer sold / Grandfathered in - now mobile apps/online only) DVDDecrypter ISO Buster Pro version 1.9.1 (Still supports HD-DVD too) Nero Burning Rom 8 (Only the burning software, no backup, media converter, etc)   OpenAL (Runtime) - GuildWars 1 Reforged still uses it for 3d headphone audio PowerDVD 12 Ultra SPTD (SCSI Pass through Direct Driver) UltraISO Windows Media Encoder 9 WinImage You can tell I still sport an optical drive    
    • Linux 7.1 arrives with an NTFS overhaul and major hardware performance boosts by Paul Hill The founder of the Linux kernel has just announced the availability of Linux 7.1. This is a stable version of the kernel that will now be tested by various Linux distributions before it is shipped to users through update managers. Some users, like those on Debian, for example, might not get it for a long time, if at all, while Fedora users can expect it in the near future. With Linux 7.1 out on time, the merge window for Linux 7.2 is now open, giving contributors the opportunity to send in major new features that have been waiting for the last two months. Torvalds warned that he is currently travelling and will be in another timezone, so timing for the merge window may be irregular due to timezone differences and limited internet access. Torvalds said that he has already fetched early pull requests to allow him to do some offline work, but the travel could still cause disruption. Right now, he is not planning to extend the release, but did consider it. He said he might later regret not extending, though. In terms of this last week of development for Linux 7.1, Torvalds said there were no major or alarming changes. This week consisted mostly of smaller driver updates to GPU, networking, and sound, networking fixes, trace tooling fixes, and misc minor fixes. The shortlog this week lists fixes for driver bugs, memory leaks, I/O and USB fixes, networking and RDMA fixes, DRM/graphics fixes, and tooling and verification improvements. Specific fixes include USB series heap-overflow and buffer overflow fixes, and multiple use-after-free, memory-leak, and refcount corrections across subsystems such as i2c, zram, gpio, and net. There are fixes for graphics drivers, including amdgpu, i915, and virtio, as well as hypervisor and virtualization tweaks affecting mshv, vmbus, and hyperv. According to Phoronix, anyone running Linux 7.1 should look out for the new NTFS driver, Intel FRED for improved performance on Panther Lake and future CPUs, faster graphics with Intel Arc Battlemage, and improvements for older AMD Radeon GPUs. If you are running Linux on your computer and everything is fine, then you don’t need to worry about updating to Linux 7.1 as a priority; just wait for it to be pushed to you. If you have tried Linux on hardware but it didn’t work properly, trying again with a distro that uses Linux 7.1 could cause Linux to work on your machine, thanks to the new hardware support.
    • you can also do this with this tool: PowerSettingsExplorer made by mbk1969 at 3dguru forum.. I found it by accident researching on modern standby and annoying quirks of it in 2022
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      rolfus earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Leroy Jethro Gibbs earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Conversation Starter
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • One Month Later
      AndreaB earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      agatameier earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      507
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      196
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      139
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      90
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      81
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!