Microsoft Photos Not Working At All

Hi, my name is Douglas. I am posting because I've been searching for over three hours about this topic and I cannot find anybody in the same situation. So here's what's going on - I recently upgraded to Windows 10 Home, and I've been loving it, besides the fact that I cannot open, update, or do ANYTHING with Microsoft Photos. At first, it just wouldn't open. It always said something along the lines of "app did not start" or something like that. So here are the steps I took to try and solve that:

-Went to the store and was flooded with updates to the basic apps (18 in total.)
-I updated all of them, but Microsoft Photos said "try again" (error code 0x80070003)
-I then researched, and tried to uninstall the Photos app through Windows PowerShell.
-It didn't do anything, it had a bunch of red text (sorry I can't recall it, but it said that the storage path could not be found)
-It seemed to not have done anything, but the photos that wouldn't work would open with paint, and Microsoft photos could not be found when trying to change the default app for those photos. So it must have done something.
-I then re-registered the apps from the store (or something like that) and a lot of them had that red text like above.
-Now, Photos doesn't do anything when clicked on, and I can't open any photos with it.

Sorry that was so long. I am kind of frustrated because I don't know what went wrong, and I am not yet desperate enough to reinstall Windows 10. Thanks, please respond ASAP and so will I.

dalchina said:

Hi, if you've tried the powershell command to reinstall your apps and that has failed, then try the following rather useful technique.

But first, since sthg has gone wrong, do this just in case:
Press Windows key + X, click command prompt (admin)
At the command prompt type
chkdsk C: \F
It will run after restart, take some time.
Make sure the result is ok (either all ok or fixed) before proceeding.
=============================================

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.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums

This will refresh Windows, after the manner of a Windows installation.
- all/most associations will be unchanged
- all your programs will be left installed
- 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)

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.

Recommendation:
Before you perform this major repair procedure, do create a disk image.

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 or Aomei Backupper (free) + their boot disk/device + large enough external storage medium.

Hi, first of all, thank you for responding. Also, I tried to run the command you gave me, and it says that "\F" was an invalid parameter. I then ran it through the properties of C: in tools, and it came out with no errors (but I don't know if those two are the same thing) Also, I do not know where to download Aomei Backupper. There are two websites but one of the downloads gives me an invalid signature so I ask if you would please send me a link where to download it. And another note, is there anyway I can repair the Windows 10 install without a CD or USB? I don't have access to either but if I need to I will try to get a hold of one of them. I do have DVD's, but they are only 4 Gigs in size. Thanks!

koukaclover,

Are you aware of Windows Photo Viewer which is included in Windows 7 but removed from Win 10 ?
You can restore it and use it in your Win 10.................
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1...dows-10-a.html

Once you have it installed, make it as your default instead of the Photos app.

davidhk said:

koukaclover,

Are you aware of Windows Photo Viewer which is included in Windows 7 but removed from Win 10 ?
You can restore it and use it in your Win 10.................
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1...dows-10-a.html

Once you have it installed, make it as your default instead of the Photos app.

I am aware, but I don't want to go about my system while one of the components doesn't work. It's not that I'm not okay with restoring it, it just kind of bothers me for some reason. Maybe my OCD

koukaclover,

You did say you used Powershell trying to uninstall Photos, but it did not work for you.

I am wondering if you were using this tutorial:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4...a.html#option2

Use Option Two.
Scroll down to ........................(To remove Photos app from current account only)
Copy/paste the Get command line to your elevated Powershell.
( I just did it to make sure it works before reply back. See screenshot at the end.)

Once it is uninstalled, go to Windows Store > search for Microsoft Photos > reinstall.
See if the newly installed Photos will work this time.

davidhk said:

koukaclover,

You did say you used Powershell trying to uninstall Photos, but it did not work for you.

I am wondering if you were using this tutorial:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4...a.html#option2

Use Option Two.
Scroll down to ........................(To remove Photos app from current account only)
Copy/paste the Get command line to your elevated Powershell.
( I just did it to make sure it works before reply back. See screenshot at the end.)

Once it is uninstalled, go to Windows Store > search for Microsoft Photos > reinstall.
See if the newly installed Photos will work this time.

Hi, I tried your command in exactly the way you stated, and the red text came up again. See if you can understand it. The thing I find weird is that in the Store, it says it's installed and that I just need to update it. This is where I get error code 0x80070003

Mine got uninstalled instantly, as you can see from my screenshot.

Yours appears to have failed to get uninstalled.
I do not know why, nor do I have enough knowledge to analyse it.
Sorry I have wasted your time.

davidhk said:

Mine got uninstalled instantly, as you can see from my screenshot.

Yours appear that it failed to get uninstalled.
I do not know why, nor do I have enough knowledge to analyse it.
Sorry I have wasted your time.

It's alright, don't apologize. I need all of the help I can get. I think I should just go with Dalchina's method of installing Windows again. I'm going to use the media creation tool to do so. Thank you. I'll get back when it installs again, as it took an extremely long time the first time. Here goes nothing!