How to Reinstall Microsoft Store in Windows after Uninstalling it with PowerShell

Note Note: This article applies to Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Windows 10 and 11 come with many built-in Store apps that may not be useful to you. As you may have known, PowerShell allows you to uninstall individual apps or all apps using a single command.

If you had used the following command to uninstall all bundled apps in Windows 10 or 11, you should have noticed that the much useful “Windows Store” app (now known as “Microsoft Store”) is one of those removed apps.

Get-AppXPackage | Remove-AppxPackage

Additionally, you may get the error “You’ll need a new app to open this ms-windows-store link “
when opening certain Store apps or running wsreset.exe:

Lately, Windows 11 users have been saying that the Microsoft Store app is missing or non-functional after resetting Windows 11. Without the “Microsoft Store” app, you won’t be able to install or update Store apps.

This post tells you how to get back the Microsoft Store app if it’s missing after a reset or if you’ve uninstalled it accidentally using PowerShell.

Reinstall the Microsoft Store app

Here is how to reinstall Microsoft Store. The 1st method applies if the Microsoft Store app package folder is intact. The 2nd method should be used if the Microsoft Store provisioned app package folder doesn’t exist.

Method 1: Using PowerShell

1️⃣ To restore or reinstall Windows Store, let’s start PowerShell as Administrator by search powershell, right click then select Run as administrator.

2️⃣ In the PowerShell window, type the following command to check if Microsoft Store app still available in your system at C:\Program Files\WindowsApps.

PS C:\> Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsStore

Name                   : Microsoft.WindowsStore
Publisher              : CN=Microsoft Corporation, O=Microsoft Corporation, L=Redmond, S=Washington, C=US
Architecture           : X64
Version                : 22307.1401.7.0
PackageFullName        : Microsoft.WindowsStore_22307.1401.7.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
InstallLocation        : C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsStore_22307.1401.7.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
IsFramework            : False
PackageFamilyName      : Microsoft.WindowsStore_8wekyb3d8bbwe
PublisherId            : 8wekyb3d8bbwe
PackageUserInformation : {S-1-5-18 [S-1-5-18]: Staged}
Status                 : Ok

3️⃣ If the package still available, you can continue to reinstall it using below command:

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

Additionally, if you want to reinstall or restore all the built-in Windows apps (including Microsoft Store), use this command to install them at once.

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

However, for some users, the above commands may throw one of the following errors, and Store does not get reinstated:

Add-AppxPackage : Cannot find path ‘C:\AppXManifest.xml’ because it does not exist.
At line:1 char:61
+ … | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.I …
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (C:\AppXManifest.xml:String) [Add-AppxPackage], ItemNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.Windows.Appx.PackageManager.Commands.AddAppxPackageCommand

Add-AppxPackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073CF6, Package could not be registered.
error 0x80070057: While processing the request, the system failed to register the windows.applyDataExtension extension …

error 0x80070057: Cannot register the request because the following error was encountered during the registration of the windows.applyDataExtension extension: The parameter is incorrect.

An internal error occurred with error 0x80070002.

Package could not be registered. Merge Failure : error 0x80070003 : Cannot register the Microsoft.WindowsStore_2015.23.23.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe package because there was a merge failure.

The above errors if the Microsoft Store package folder is missing (or incomplete) from the C:\Program Files\WindowsApps folder. You’ll need to download the Microsoft Store appx bundle/package from Microsoft and install it in those cases. The instructions are given in Method 2 below.

Method 2: Download the Microsoft Store installer (Appx package)

You can download the Microsoft Store app and its dependencies in the form of .appx and .msixBundle package or installers from the official Microsoft’s servers. Follow these steps to do so:

1️⃣ Visit the following website https://store.rg-adguard.net. This third-party site can generate download links (to app installers) for the chosen app. These are direct download links pointing to the official Microsoft servers.

2️⃣ On the above page, paste the following link in the URL text box. The following is the Microsoft Store app’s official link.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/microsoft-store/9wzdncrfjbmp

3️⃣ Select Retail (or the appropriate branch accordingly), and click the generate button

Note Note: You must use Google Chrome or Firefox browser to access this site.

4️⃣ As the Microsoft Store app depends on .NET Framework, .NET Runtime, Microsoft.UI.Xaml, and VC Libs, download the latest packages of each item listed. Be sure to download the correct ones matching the bitness (x86 vs. x64) of your Windows.

5️⃣ Now, you would have downloaded these five packages. The version numbers will vary according to the build/version of the Microsoft Store app.

Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.2.2_2.2.29512.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.Appx
Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.1.7_1.7.27422.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.Appx
Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.7_7.2208.15002.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.Appx
Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00_14.0.30704.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.Appx
Microsoft.WindowsStore_22207.1401.1.0_neutral___8wekyb3d8bbwe.Msixbundle

6️⃣ Run each .appx installer first, as they’re the dependencies of the Microsoft Store.

If double-clicking on an Appx or Msixbundle file doesn’t start the installer, as an alternative, you can use PowerShell to install each package. The PowerShell command-line syntax is below:

Add-AppxPackage -Path "filename.appx"

For example, below commands will install all downloaded packages at once.

Set-Location "$env:userprofile\downloads"
Get-ChildItem -Include *.appx -Recurse -File | foreach {Add-AppxPackage -Path $_.Name}

If you get the error Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073D02, skip the package. It’s most likely because the package or dependency is already installed and currently in use by some other app. Also, you can run the following command to check if an app package is already installed or not:

Get-AppxPackage | Sort-Object PackageFullName | select PackageFullName | Out-GridView

If the package (of the same version) is already installed, you don’t have to install it again.

7️⃣ Finally, run the Microsoft Store installer (.msixbundle) file and complete the process.

That’s it. The Microsoft Store app is now reinstated. Open Microsoft Store → Settings to check its version.

Method 3: Reinstalling Microsoft Store using PowerShell script

If you’re a PowerShell nerd like us. You can try the below one-line command to do it automatically. The PowerShell script will:

Create a temporary folder then download all required packages (.appx, .Msixbundle).
Install dependency packages and Microsoft Store using Add-AppxPackage cmdlet.

irm bonguides.com/pw/installmsstore | iex

Verify the Microsoft Store app info

After installing the Microsoft Store appx package, it would have restored the following folders under the C:\Program Files\WindowsApps folder:

PS C:\> Get-ChildItem "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\" | select Name

Name
----
AdobeNotificationClient_3.0.1.1_x86__enpm4xejd91yc
AppUp.IntelGraphicsExperience_1.100.5185.0_neutral_split.scale-100_8j3eq9eme6ctt
AppUp.IntelGraphicsExperience_1.100.5185.0_neutral_split.scale-125_8j3eq9eme6ctt
AppUp.IntelGraphicsExperience_1.100.5185.0_neutral_~_8j3eq9eme6ctt
AppUp.IntelGraphicsExperience_1.100.5185.0_x64__8j3eq9eme6ctt
Clipchamp.Clipchamp_2.2.8.0_neutral_split.scale-100_yxz26nhyzhsrt
Clipchamp.Clipchamp_2.2.8.0_neutral__yxz26nhyzhsrt
Clipchamp.Clipchamp_2.2.8.0_neutral_~_yxz26nhyzhsrt
Deleted
DeletedAllUserPackages
Merged
...

Optionally, to verify the Microsoft Store app info, open the PowerShell (administrator) window and run the following command. You’ll see that the Microsoft Store app is fully installed along with its dependencies.

Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsStore

Name              : Microsoft.WindowsStore
Publisher         : CN=Microsoft Corporation, O=Microsoft Corporation, L=Redmond, S=Washington, C=US
Architecture      : X64
ResourceId        :
Version           : 22307.1401.7.0
PackageFullName   : Microsoft.WindowsStore_22307.1401.7.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
InstallLocation   : C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsStore_22307.1401.7.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
IsFramework       : False
PackageFamilyName : Microsoft.WindowsStore_8wekyb3d8bbwe
PublisherId       : 8wekyb3d8bbwe
IsResourcePackage : False
IsBundle          : False
IsDevelopmentMode : False
NonRemovable      : False
Dependencies      : {Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.7_7.2208.15002.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe,
                    Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.2.2_2.2.29512.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe,
                    Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.2.2_2.2.28604.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe,
                    Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00_14.0.32530.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe}
IsPartiallyStaged : False
SignatureKind     : Store
Status            : Ok

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