My modern apps no longer will run in my windows 8.1 Pro laptop.

The two that I use are Microsoft Solitaire Collection and the Weather app.

I don't want to uninstall and reinstall them (also for the umteenth time), because I DO NOT want to lose my Solitaire collection stats, 500 wins out of 500 plays in Freecell.

What to do!

I know it's just a stupid game, but, still, there should be some way to fix this without having to uninstall and reinstall, again!

Or, if there is a way to preserve the stats in an uninstall/reinstall scenario, that would work for me.  In the past, the stats get reset in an uninstall/reinstall of Microsoft Solitaire Collection.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

I just ran SFC /scannow and it reported that it found and fixed corrupted files.  But, as I suspected would be the case, Microsoft Solitaire Collection continues to exhibit antisocial behavior and still refuses to run.

There is a special seat in Hell for the 'engineers' (sic) at Microsoft who developed the Metro App Tech.  Modern Apps are quite inferior to desktop applications.  They are finicky, frequently refuse to run and require that they be installed for each user, unlike the well designed desktop application API.

In short, metro tech is crap, which, you will notice rhymes with "app."

This does not bode well for windows 10 in which metro app tech has infected core functionality, like windows update, just to cite one example.

Charles

Did you run DISM to fix the problems?

I went ahead and ran this in an admin command prompt.

+++++++ START command prompt activity ++++++++++

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
(c) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.3.9600.17031

Image Version: 6.3.9600.17031

The component store is repairable.
The operation completed successfully.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 6.3.9600.17031

Image Version: 6.3.9600.17031

[==========================100.0%==========================]
No component store corruption detected.
The operation completed successfully.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

+++++++ END command prompt activity +++++++

As the last operation reported "No component store corruption detected," I stopped here.

What next?

Hello Charles,

Please check if the following article applies for your issue:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3036612

In addition, in order to avoid any third-party confliction, I suggest we also try running the games in Clean Boot mode.

If the issue still persists, would you please upload a snapshot of the error message you encountered for further troubleshooting.

Thanks,

I checked and the update referred to in your link is already installed on my computer.

I get no error message.  When I attempt to run Microsoft Solitaire Collection, the screen with a blue background and "Microsoft Solitaire Collection" centered in large text appears for a second or two and then the screen disappears.  The icon for the app remains on the taskbar, but I don't see it listed Task Manager.

This behavior is the same as I've previously experienced when it has failed in the past.

By the way, I went ahead and uninstalled/reinstalled the weather app and it is now working.

Hello Roeland,

It seems other applications keeps crashing the Modern" Apps. You can check the application log to see whether there are any related error information about the Modern" Apps.

1. Press Win + R key and input eventvwr, press enter key.

2. Expand Windows Logs -> click on Application.

3. In the right pane, click Filter Current Log, check on Error and Critical.

4. Check the result about the Modern" Apps.

If there is still no information in App log, I am afraid we have to run in Clean Boot mode to find the root cause.

I just attempted to run Microsoft Solitaire Collection and then examine the event viewer for errors.  Two were generated.

I saved them and a folder containing an .MTA file and a .evtx file were created as a result of the Save.

Unfortunately, I don't know how to attach them to this topic.

The first (chronologically) error states:

Failure to load the application settings for package Microsoft.MicrosoftSolitaireCollection_8wekyb3d8bbwe. Error Code: 5

Doesn't error 5 mean access denied?

The second error states:

Faulting application name: Solitaire.exe, version: 1.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x54d8b5a6
Faulting module name: combase.dll, version: 6.3.9600.17415, time stamp: 0x54503d84
Exception code: 0xc000027b

I hope that this info helps to resolve the issue.