So I was just going about my normal app update routine when I noticed something strange. I got this error upon firing up the Windows Store:
Upon closer digging, I realized that I am not alone. As Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet has noted, the above issue affects quite a number of users and for some of them, it extends even to another Windows 10 modern app, the mail client. In my case Mail is working just fine as I have not only been able to get all my emails on time in the last few hours but I just synced a few minutes ago and my SegmentNext newsletter was delivered as expected. As were several back and forth test emails.
We are not sure what the cause of the above error is. Could be just those servers having their moment.
Hitting the Microsoft forums didn’t yield much either and I am left in a wait and see situation. Since the error code is not new, others have run into such problems before, some of the solutions being thrown around include running a system file checker (which I can confirm doesn’t work, it’s broken and requires fixing on its own) and scanning the entire computer for malware. I’m here trying to figure out where I could have gotten such “life-threatening” malware since my computer has not only been very idle over the weekend but did pretty much nothing other than streaming the BBC’s Match of the Day and Match of the Day 2 as the Barclays Premier League kicked off and playing Dr Dre’s new album on iTunes for many hours on end.
Another suggested fix did work for me though:
- Run the Command Prompt using elevated privilges/as Administrator
- Key in
netsh winhttp reset proxy - Wait for execution
- Close Command Prompt window
- Close the Windows Store
- Open the Windows Store, again
While the above fix worked for me, I am not sure if it will work for you as well but give it a try as we wait anything concrete from Microsoft’s end. Or you could just wait since as per older forum postings, the issue tends to resolve itself in a matter of hours.
We have heard of instances where several users got stuck in a bootloop after applying the latest Windows 10 update but I doubt the Windows Store error has anything to do with that. Since the error has affected Windows 8 users in the past, we are not sure if this is currently only being experienced by Windows 10 users alone or others as well. So far only reported instances are by those running Windows 10 on their machines.
Update: Even after applying the above fix I still got back to where I was at first after the Store responded well in the first instance. Looks like waiting for a “fix” from Microsoft is the right thing to do after all. Unless the Store is that important to you, redoing the same process above over and over again is rather pointless.
