A 31-page long thread on Microsoft's official forums shows that some Windows 10 users are not having a good time using their computers. Plenty of customers say they cannot launch applications on different hardware, citing "File System Error (-2147219196)."
It all started with a user claiming they could not open a picture using the stock Photos app, with the latter showing the error mentioned above. Later on, other people chimed in, reporting the same problem with other inbox Windows apps, such as Calculator (how hard could it be to run Calculator), Movies and TV, Feedback Hub (this one is quite ironic), 3D Viewer, etc.
Microsoft usually takes a while to acknowledge a widespread bug or error (assuming this one is such a problem), so we have to wait for the company to say a word about the situation. Meanwhile, users decided to dig deeper into the issue and perform their own investigation.
According to The Register, one theory is that the recent app updates rely on instructions that older processors do not support. In fact, many of the affected users run old-school hardware from the pre-Intel Core era, with long-outdated processors like Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon. Another speculation is that we may be dealing with a simple and unintentional developer mistake that rendered outdated hardware incapable of running the latest Windows app versions.
If you have a Windows 10 PC that runs on hardware whose best time dates back to the Windows Vista era, maybe it is a good idea to pause automatic updates and wait for the situation to clear up. The story also serves as a reminder that sometimes Microsoft means it when saying that you may encounter problems when running unsupported hardware and software.
Windows 10 users, do you have problems with Windows apps on your not-so-recent PCs? Let us know in the comments.
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