[German edition]Yesterday many users worldwide begun to upgrade/installing Windows 10. One side effect is a nasty error dropped by Windows 10 Windows Store. An attempt to download a new app results in error code 0x803F7003.
This is (for me) a sign, how "broken" the app store concept is – Google, Apple and Microsoft are trying to force users into their stores. But if the store stalls, the whole app concept goes downhill …
Yesterday I was getting furious. I have downloaded an MSDN ISO install media and begun set up a fresh Windows 10 installation in a VMware workstation virtual machine. After installing I recognized that many build-in apps are updated. How sick is this? A new image containing old app builds (for instance, the Music app still comes with the "Music" title – not Groove Music)? Sorry, this is a no go. This causes a huge (unnecessary) internet traffic world wide after millions of people updates their systems.
Voodoo – or just error 0x803F7003 in Windows Store
I have a couple of machines (real machines and virtual machines) running test installs of Windows 10 (fresh installs from MSDN ISO images, older installs with Build 10240 from Windows Insider program). On all machines an attempt to install a new app results in Windows Store error 0x803F7003. Here is a screen shot of my German Windows 10 install.
The error code doesn't provide any clue about the root cause. Searching the web in brief, I found a lot of "voodoo" to cure this error. Some users are believed, they begun to pray, in the hope, it helped, others decided to cross their fingers or sip a bottle of whisky (after the flush ends, the store worked). And there seems so be a couple of more answers – looking more seriously – but are just not helpful. See for instance this MS Answers thread, this reddit-post, this article, here and others (broken). Investigating the error on my machines, results in the following findings:
- Already installed apps will update properly (sometimes delayed)
- New app installs fail with error 0x803F7003 during obtaining the App license
- Using wsreset.exe doesn't help
- Rebooting a machine doesn't help
- Going back on Build 10248 doesn't help (I have several Insider Build installs here)
- Changing Microsoft account doesn't help
- Switching off Windows Firewall doesn't help
Error 0x803F7003 means intermitted internet connection – and the reason is (in my view): Microsoft's server used to grant app licenses are not responding fast enough, because they are "overloaded" with requests for app downloads. With this attempt it 's clear, that approaches using reboot or wsreset.exe will help from time to time – but fails for others. Any further thoughts about that?
Update: it first seemed that this approach helped. Here are the steps you should try:
1. Fire up an administrative command prompt.
2. Enter the following PowerShell command.
PowerShell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command "& {$manifest = (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.WindowsStore).InstallLocation + '\AppxManifest.xml' ; Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $manifest}"
But this is "another case of voodoo"! I used it on one machine and it seems to be the cure. But as a voodoo priest I took one of my healing hands on the working machine and the other on my 2nd real machine (that without the cure suggested above). And magically my 2nd machine was healed and is able to install also apps – voodoo rocks …
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