Jenetrix, Creature™ (@Jenetrix)

Yesterday i had to do something really fucking stupid.

I wanted to try out a new desktop fedi client, but the windows version is only released in the microsoft store. so i go to download it from the MS Store only for it and all the other store exclusive apps i use. to fail to download/update. it kept giving an error, so i google that error and all the results for it are related to the windows firewall not working.

So i check the windows firewall and its related services and theyre all working fine. my next guess its probably something fucky with the microsoft store. so i clear out the cache and it doesnt fix it. i check the microsoft store services and theyre still working, restarting them doesnt help. so i think maybe the store itself is broken so i open power shell and uninstall it. as im going to reinstall the microsoft store it keeps failing saying it cannot find the files, even as i explicitly point to them or try to redownload from microsofts servers. i cant even re-download it from winget because it uses the store as a repo for that. oh and microsoft removed the MSI installer to manualy install the store, you can only get it from the store or windows update. AND WINDOWS UPDATE IS NOW BROKEN TOO!!!

So at this point im thinking i need to do the usual SFC/DISM fixes in powershell, except when it goes to repair things it still cannot find the repositorys. maybe i can try the offline fix method? so i download a W11 25H2 iso, mount it, point DISM to it, and it STILL cannot find it.

Now at this point im kinda livid. this windows 11 install has survived 6 years of updates, across 3 different machines, and even the jump up from windows 10. I have kept this frankenwindows install running for so long i get a sick perverse pleasure from keeping it alive. I really do not want to have to nuke this drive. so i go for broke and do an in-place reset of 25H2. AND IT STILL DIDNT FIX IT.

But the in place reset did do something! after that i was able to use powershell to reinstall and reset the store. and when i finally open the store im greeted with "WinAppRuntime.Main.1.8 Updated Today"

So you're telling me that the runtime environment necessary for the microsoft store and related apps to update and function, updates through the store? and if it breaks it cant update itself to unbreak? is there not a way to manually install this? well apparently not that i can fucking find. you need to do an inplace windows reset because apparently nothing short of that will fix how badly it fubars the repositorys and app database.

This is why nobody fucking loves you Microslop.