How to fix issue with missing apps on 1607 Start menu
I have a Dell Venue Pro 8 tablet which I received as a prize at one of conferences two years ago. I like it because it is small and light, and I use it mostly for reading and internet browsing during my often business trips, althouh it has some issues with WLAN drivers and its audio jack is broken (which I solved using bluetooth audio adapter). It is since 2014 upgraded to each major Windows version, and latest upgraded to Anniversary Update 1607. It worked every time, just I had to make sure I have enough free space on the internal SSD to perform upgrade. However, last week after I applied one of Cumulative updates after 1607 (KB3199209 or KB3194798) I lost all of the Windows 10 apps on my Start menu – all I could see were desktop programs installed on the tablet and I couldn’t see Kindle, Adobe Reader, Mail. Even Windows Store app was gone.
After searching the web and reviewing lot of advices ranging from sfc/scannow to clean install, I decided to apply PowerShell script to restore all of the installed apps by performing Get-AppxPackage | Add-AppxPackage. The script was, in different variants, available on Microsoft Answers, TechNet, Winsupersite. So, first I tried to restore all apps (lazy approach) - that one failed after several apps were restored, but it was enough to prove the assumption that the script works.
Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "\((\)_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
Then I decided to try restoring one by one by performing Get-AppXPackage with package name as a argument – starting with Windows Store:
$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsStore).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest
Soon I learned that I don’t know exact AppXPackage names for all apps – but luckily enough, the script command accepts wildcards and you can execute it as
$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage Adobe.*).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest
After couple tries, now I have all of my important apps visible on Start menu again. In case I will need some of those I have installed but don’t see – I will just execute the script like this
$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage <
