Fix Apps are greyed out in Windows 10

Fix Apps are greyed out in Windows 10: If you have recently updated to Windows 10 then chances are that when you open Start Menu you will see some of the Apps are underlined and the tiles of these Apps are greyed out. These apps include Calendar, Music, Maps, Photos, etc which means all the apps which come with Windows 10 have this issue. Seems like the apps are stuck in update mode and when you click on these apps, a window pops up for few milliseconds and then closes automatically.

Fix Apps are greyed out in Windows 10

Now one thing is for sure that this is caused because of corrupt Windows or Windows Store files. When you update the Windows some of the apps couldn’t properly process the updates and hence faces this issue. So without wasting any time let’s see how to actually Fix Apps are greyed out in Windows 10 issue with the below-listed troubleshooting guide.

Fix Apps are greyed out in Windows 10

Make sure to create a restore point just in case something goes wrong.

Method 1: Reset Windows Store Cache

1. Press Windows Key + R then type “wsreset.exe” and hit enter.

wsreset to reset windows store app cache

2.Let the above command run which will reset your Windows Store cache.

3.When this is done restart your PC to save changes.

Method 2: Update Graphic Card Drivers

1.First of all, you should know what graphics hardware you have i.e. which Nvidia graphic card you have, don’t worry if you don’t know about it as it can be easily find.

2.Press Windows Key + R and in the dialog box type “dxdiag” and hit enter.

dxdiag command

3.After that search for the display tab (there will be two display tabs one for the integrated graphic card and another one will be of Nvidia’s) click on the display tab and find out your graphic card.

DiretX diagnostic tool

4.Now go to the Nvidia driver download website and enter the product details which we just find out.

5.Search your drivers after inputting the information, click Agree and download the drivers.

NVIDIA driver downloads

6.After successful download, install the driver and you have successfully updated your Nvidia drivers manually. This installation will take some time but you will have successfully updated your driver after that.

Method 3: Make sure Windows is up to date

1.Press Windows Key + I then select Update & Security.

Update & security

2.Next, click Check for updates and make sure to install any pending updates.

click check for updates under Windows Update

3.After the updates are installed reboot your PC to Fix Apps are greyed out in Windows 10.

Method 4: Download and Run Microsoft Official Start Menu Troubleshooter

1.Download and run Start Menu Troubleshooter.

2.Double click on the downloaded file and then click Next.

Start Menu Troubleshooter

3.Let it find and automatically fix the issue with Start Menu.

4.Go to this link and download Windows Store Apps Troubleshooter.

5.Double-click the download file to run the Troubleshooter.

click on Advanced and then click Next to run Windows Store Apps Troubleshooter

6.Make sure to click on Advanced and check mark “Apply repair automatically.

7.In addition to above also try to run this Troubleshooter.

Method 5: Re-register Windows Store

1.In the Windows search type Powershell then right-click on Windows PowerShell and select Run as administrator.

powershell right click run as administrator

2.Now type the following in the Powershell and hit enter:

Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Re-register Windows Store Apps

3.Let the above process finish and then restart your PC.

4.Now again run wsreset.exe to reset Windows Store cache.

This should Fix Apps are greyed out in Windows 10 but if you’re still stuck on the same error then continue with the next method.  

Method 6: Manually Reinstall Some Apps

1.Type powershell in Windows search then right-click on Windows PowerShell and select Run as Administrator.

powershell right click run as administrator

2.Type the following command into PowerShell and hit Enter:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers > C:\apps.txt

Generate the list of all the apps in Windows

3.Now navigate to your C: drive and open apps.txt file.

4.Find the apps that you want to reinstall from the list, for example, let’s say it’s the Photo app.

Find the apps that you want to reinstall from the list for example in this case it's Photos

5.Now use the package full name to uninstall the app:

Remove-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Photos_2017.18062.13720.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Uninstall Photo app using Powershell command

6.Next, re-install the app but this time use apps Name rather than the Package name:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers *photos* | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}

Again re-install the Photo App

7.This would reinstall the desired application and repeat the steps for as many applications as you want.

This will definitely Fix Apps are greyed out issue in Windows 10.

Method 7: If you can’t access powershell use Command Prompt

1.To Re-register all the Windows Store apps type the following command into cmd:

PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command “& {$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsStore).InstallLocation + ‘\AppxManifest.xml’ ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest}”

2.Type the following to generate the apps list:

PowerShell Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers > C:\apps.txt

3.To remove the specific app use the full package name:

PowerShell Remove-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Photos_2017.18062.13720.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

4.Now in order to again install them use the following command:

PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command "& {$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Photos).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest}"

Note: Make sure to use the Apps name not the package name in the above command.

5.This would re-install the specific app from the Windows Store.

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That’s it you have successfully Fix Apps are greyed out in Windows 10 but if you still have any questions regarding this post then feel free to ask them in the comment’s section.

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