The icon had changed to be "@{Microsoft.Windows...." and would not open. Time to learn lots more than I ever wanted to about Windows 10...
The Store app is stored alongside all the apps downloaded from the Store (and pre-installed) in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps, which is a hidden directory. There seemed to be two versions of the app store in there, 2015.25.22.0 and 2015.25.24.0. Neither worked. After a lot of Googling (and Binging?) I found this link which pointed me in the right direction and was basically the only helpful thing I could find about the issue, although seemingly not the issue I was having.
So I removed version 24:
remove-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsStore_2015.25.24.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe -confirm
Fine. Nothing bad happened.
So I tried to reinstall it as suggested in my Google find. Except it complained about version 22 still being installed. I didn't save the error message unfortunately. So, OK, I thought, just remove version 22. So I tried:
remove-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsStore_2015.25.22.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe -confirm
And got this (relevant bit picked out of a screenful of messages). Not what I wanted:
error 0x80070002: Reading manifest from location:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository\Microsoft.WindowsStore_2015.25.22.0_neutral_split.scale-100_8wekyb3d8bbwe.xml failed with error:
The system cannot find the file specified.
It was right though. That file wasn't there. So I then simply(!) installed Windows 10 as a VM in VirtualBox on my trusty MacBook and found that file. Actually it was the version 24 xml file, but I renamed it and edited it so it looked like version 22, put it into the place suggested by the error and tried the remove command again, and: hoorah! It "removed" the xml file and its corresponding directory in c:\Program Files\WindowsApps. (Did I mention that was hidden and owned by TrustedInstaller?). I did :
Takeown.exe /F c:\Program Files\WindowsApps
to get round that.
Anyway, time to try reinstalling the version 24 of the Store (as that was the only version I now had, as my VM decided to install updates all by itself. Bloody Microsoft).
I copied the directory (I will not call them folders) into c:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsStore_2015.25.24.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
and put the xml file into c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository. The I ran:
Add-AppxPackage -Register c:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsStore_2015.25.24.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\AppxManifest.xml -DisableDevelopmentMode
The PowerShell command (I mentioned I was in PowerShell right? No? Well I was. As Administrator) ran without error. Progress, I thought. Then nothing happened.
I pressed the Win key to show the start menu and the App Store icon still showed the gobbledygook it showed before. Obviously, then, being the logical, level-headed animal I am, I furiously hammered the Win key for a few seconds until, lo and behold, the Store "tile" looked right again. Eureka!
And it worked. I clicked on it and it opened. F**king-A! I download the first sh*tty app I could see, and it downloaded and ran. Job done. Let adulation from 14 year old daughter commence.
Yeah, right.
