[German]Once again a little hint for users of Windows 11 22H2. I still keep hearing "runs without any problem", but just in case, if Windows 11 22H2 should ever have hiccup and shows the error "This app can not be opened", there I would have something to the cause. Officially confirmed by Microsoft as a bug. And there are more issues.
Advertising
Windows System Restore
Windows System Restore is a mechanism that writes restore points for a system state to disk. In the event of a problem with Windows, the user can then return to one of the restore points to correct an error caused by a software update or similar. User files are not lost, since they are not part of a restore point.
But I'm not sure how many Windows 11 users can even use System Restore. Because it has to be enabled in order to write restore points to revert back. But when upgrading to a new Windows 10 or 11 version, System Restore is disabled by default. And faulty drivers or lack of resources can also cause it to be disabled.
System Restore bricks MSIX-apps
Microsoft has just confirmed a System Restore issue related to apps that use the MSIX Windows package format in support article KB5023152: "This app can't open" error message when starting a Windows app in Windows 11, version 22H2. Provided that the user restores the system to a previous restore point via System Restore with Windows 11 22H2, this can cause errors with apps such as Notepad, Paint, Office, Cortana, Terminal and so on. When launching the app, you may encounter the following issues:
- An app may not respond when launched
- An I/O error may occur and the app becomes unresponsive and then crashes
- If another attempt is made to launch the app, it will run
According to Microsoft, the following Windows versions are affected:
- Windows 11 SE Version 22H2
- Windows 11 Home und Pro, Version 22H2
- Windows 11 Enterprise Multi-Session Version 22H2
- Windows 11 Enterprise und Education Version 22H2
- Windows 11 IoT Enterprise Version 22H2
If this is the case, Microsoft recommends the following workarounds:
Advertising
- Try to launch the app again
- Try reinstalling the app from the Windows Store
- Try reinstalling the app from the original source
- Try running a Windows Update
- Try to switch to Linux
Ok, ok, the last item in the list above was a prank, I could not resist. It all sounds a bit like voodoo, but should work according to Microsoft's statements. Has anyone been affected by this bug? (via)
Apps missing from deployment
In general, Windows 11 seems to be at war with apps somehow. Already on January 6, 2023, Microsoft published the support article Some apps might not be installed when using provisioning packages in the Windows 11 22H2 health status dashboard. They say, that when using provisioning packages on Windows 11 version 22H2 (Windows 11 2022 Update), not all expected apps might be installed.
The reason is that the affected apps require elevated rights for installation (they must be installed as administrator) and these rights are not available during deployment via .PPKG files. The solution there is to simply reinstall the missing apps after deployment.
Windows 11 22H2 deployment fixed
In addition, according to the Microsoft post Provisioning packages might not work as expected dated January 6, 2023, another bug in Windows 11 22H2 has been confirmed and fixed by the update KB5020044. Without this update, using provisioning packages on Windows 11 version 22H2 does not work without errors. Windows may be only partially configured, and the deployment may not stop or restart unexpectedly. The issue affected the managed Windows 11 22H2 versions in Education and Enterprise.
