Windows 10: Windows navigation crash and system restore not working

Hi: there are various threads on 80070091 as you will see if you search, including this one.
System Restore fails: AppxStaging %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApp 0x80070091 - - Windows 10 Forums

There is a possible fix amongst that, I believe.

I started that thread, and I found the problem arbitrarily fixed itself after a few weeks when I happened to try again.

In another case, running chkdsk unexpectedly resolved that.
From an admin command prompt
[Windows key + X, click command prompt (admin)]
chkdsk C: /F
Your PC will need to restart.
Make sure the result is clear or fixed- else do not proceed.
Post back the result, which you can get after a restart as follows:
How do I see the results of a CHKDSK that ran on boot? - Ask Leo!

As to your other issues, assuming you have not yet discovered the value of disk imaging which we repeatedly and strongly recommend, and which had you been using it would have given you an easy way forward, you can try an in-place upgrade repair install if you can't get system restore working.

An In-place upgrade repair install will fix many things, but not those where the settings are not changed by the procedure.

For this you need an installation medium with the same base build as you have installed, and x64 if you have a 64 bits OS, else x86 (32 bits).

You should also make sure there's at least 500Mb of unallocated space on your system disk.

Recommendation:
Before you perform the following major repair procedure, do create a disk image (see below).

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials
- this includes a link from which you can obtain a Windows 10 iso file (" download a Windows 10 ISO"), or create a Win 10 bootable medium.

I would recommend creating the bootable medium, as this can be used
- for any future in-place upgrade repair install
- to boot from and use its recovery options should Windows become unbootable.
- to clean install Windows

This will refresh Windows, after the manner of a Windows installation.
- all/most associations will be unchanged
- all your programs will be left installed
- However: if you have installed some on a 2nd drive, these must be uninstalled or reinstalled on C: - else you will get an error message that you can not keep my apps because they arein an unsupported directory.
- no personal data should be affected
- you will lose any custom fonts
- you will lose any customised system icons
- you may need to re-establish your Wi-Fi connection
- you will need to redo Windows updates subsequent to the build you have used for the repair install
- Windows.old will be created
- system restore will be turned off- you should turn it on again and I recommend you manually schedule a daily restore point.
- you will need to redo any language downloads including the display language if you changed that)
- inactive title bar colouring (if used) will be reset to default
- if Qttabbar is installed, you need to re-enable it in explorer (Options, check Qttabbar)
This is one of the better features of Win10: as each major build comes out, that's your updated reference build, and as updates are mostly cumulative, there will be few to do.


Please consider using disk imaging regularly. It's a brilliant way to
- preserve your system (and your sanity)
- back up your data
- restore your system to a previously working state in a relatively short time

Recommended: Macrium Reflect (free/commercial) + boot disk/device + large enough external storage medium.

Hi, as to cause, assuming you/your partner did nothing untoward, I have no idea what could have caused it in particular. There are plenty of reports of non-responsive start menus/task bars/missing or empty icons on the forum. Not something I've experienced.

The system restore error is most likely unrelated. Quite a few reports of that one.

System Restore vs disk imaging.
System restore protects limited areas including
- system files
- drivers
- registry
- changes to installed programs.

It does not protect your data, even the data on your system disk.
It relies on the system and disk being basically intact.
It is relatively unreliable- restoration can fail when you need it to work.

Restore points can be lost - e.g. dual booting.

Disk imaging is completely different.
A disk image is a compressed copy of the whole of a partition or disk or set thereof.

Restore points are held on the same disk- whereas disk images can and should be held on external storage.
If your disk becomes useless, so are your restore points.

A disk image, on the other hand, can be restored to the same or a replacement disk.

A disk image also acts as a full backup from which files can be extracted. It can also be used with a Laplink product to transfer your installed programs to another PC or OS installation.

They are very very different. Some experienced users here have given up entirely on System Restore.

Disk images can be updated (a smaller additional file is added to the image set) so the speed of update and size is reduced.

Disk imaging programs like Macrium Reflect (free/commercial) are relatively robust and well supported.

Try using system restore when your PC is hit by ransomware, or becomes unbootable.

Win 7 was great.. I ignore Win 10's start menu and the universal apps, Edge and Cortana... unless I can be bothered to say 'Hey Cortana, launch Abbyy Finereader' or some such. So I use it very much like Win 7 - with traditional programs.

It's been very stable.
And with a few tweaks, some resemblance.



Classic Shell start menu (free)- does everything any of the Windows start menus did and then some- expands in columns across the screen, drag 'n'drop, search works - and note the Win 7 Orb. (Can still use Win 10's start menu with a hot key). So much better.