[German]Are the GUI components for drivers (e.g. for Intel Graphics or Waves MaxxAudio settings) suddenly missing after Windows 10 setup? A crude bug causes the driver GUI components originally installed as a UWP app during setup from the Microsoft Store to be removed during the OOBE phase. Here's some information on this issue, which was detected in Windows 10 version 1809 but affects all Windows 10 builds up to Windows 10 version 2004 – it's only fixed in Windows 10 20H2.
Advertising
Windows 10 driver installation simply broken
It's a crude story that blog reader Thomas K. pointed out to me via email in mid-December 2020. In his mail, he pointed me to a problem in Windows 10 with the remark It's been sitting with me for some time now and I wonder if it's hit you […]. This has already been documented in the summer of 2019 by Mikko Järvinen on Twitter.
Järvinen has noticed that with Windows 10 Enterprise SKU (1809 x64 bit), something goes hugely wrong with the driver installation. After installing Windows 10 Enterprise and setting up the first user, the graphical user interface (GUI) for Intel graphics and Waves MaxxAudio is missing there. Something broke during the automaic driver installation. According to the above tweet, Järvinen believes that the problem affects all Windows 10 versions in principle. Meanwhile, it is known that Microsoft has fixed the whole thing in Windows 10 20H2.
Windows universal driver installation problem
The whole thing has to do with the fact that at Microsoft, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Järvinen took a closer look and documented the whole thing in a series of tweets. Windows 10 downloads device drivers via Windows Update and also installs them cleanly. These are Universal Windows drivers. The files are installed via the information in an .inf file available for the device. 
The .inf file for driver installation tells Windows 10 that a 'Companion UWP app' is required for this driver. However, this UWP app is only available in the Microsoft Store (not via Windows Update or in the driver package). In addition, this UWP app is 'hidden', so that (due to a missing .appx bundle) no download is possible. Only those who know a deep link into the store could download the bundle. But Windows automatically loads the UWP app and installs it. The driver in question is still working at this point in the Windows 10 installation.
Advertising
Jävinen has documented this in the above screenshot during the OOBE phase of the Windows 10 installation. The required Waves MaxxAudio component and Windows Apps files are present and installed on the system. Then the OOBE phase is run, the system is rebooted and the first user is set up.
Side-loading policy removes UWP app
As soon as this user logs in, there is the unpleasant experience that the graphics user interface (GUI) of various drivers stops working. In the current case, it's the GUIs for Intel Graphics and Waves MaxxAudio. The required UWP apps are simply blocked or removed by Windows 10's side-loading policy. Blog reader Thomas K. wrote me about this in his mail:
We have been hit hard with [Windows 10 version] 1909 and the Nvidia driver. There is a service running which calls the app, which has been removed, resulting in a nice error message for the user.
Jävinen had the hope that he could fix the whole thing via sideloading policy, so he proposed a solution on Twitter: In enterprise deployment, sideload apps should be enabled for all trusted apps in the setup phase, before driver installation via Windows Update and from the Microsoft Store begins. This can be seen in the following tweet.
In further tweets, however, Jävinen comes to the realization that it looks like the sideloading policy puts the Windows UWP state in a state it shouldn't be in. On Twitter, Jävinen is working away at the issue – uninstalling is not so easy. Blog reader Thomas wrote:
As far as our solution…. one turn off the service. Main thing new driver model…
The whole thing is fixed in 20H2, but we let this beta mature well until next summer :)
If anyone is affected by the problem that UWP apps needed during the automatic driver installation are deleted by the sideloading policy in the OOBE phase, at least an explanation is given. You can read details on Twitter if needed. Thanks to Thomas for the tip.
