And of course that error code just means “there was an issue with the store” WOW THANKS SO MUCH DETAIL TO GO OFF OF
Technically the numerical code still gives you a precise search key to find other people discussing the same issue.
… You know, as would be useful for a serious operating system where online support doesn’t mean trawling the bowels of Reddit praying somebody’s had the same issue and found a reproducible solution.
Hello I’m a 12 year Microsoft MVP and Certified independent advisor here to help.
Please type “CMD” into the start menu then type “ckdsk /f /r”
If this solved your issue please click on “Accept as solution”!
The one time I used that official forum I did my due diligence and laid out what I ended up doing to solve my problem as well as responding to the other person with a similar one. I am not DenverCoder9.

“Solved it, I will DM you the solution.”
This is the only part I despise of forum culture like MDL or the likes.
If you have a solution, or even better: if you have written software or a guide for this, please just publish it online.
What I hate is when I find a solution for some old post but it’s locked because “you should just make a new question” well FUCK YOU BECAUSE SEARCH ENGINES GO THERE AND I HAVE THE ANSWER AND I WANT TO HELP PEOPLE! BUT FUCK ME I GUESS 😭
It feels like a bunch of moderation decisions are made by people just trying to satisfy some arbitrary OCD-like requirements. Like “you can’t reply to an old conversation” or “you can’t talk about a problem someone has already talked about”. That stuff is worse than the people who reply useless shit like RTFM (aka “I go to helo forums not to provide help but to gloat about the things I know that you don’t and act like every single comment is addressed to me personally and needs my input”) because at least those useless comments don’t kill the rest of the conversation.
Yeah, a lot of upholding the letter of the law instead of the spirit of the law as well as following rules without really critically evaluating why they’re rules in the first place. (Example: Answering an old thread should be fine, but folks just view it as bad and lock them.)
I have copied down and manually typed out numbers like that many times when using windows. I’m not sure it ever once helped me in the slightest.
Tends to be as helpful as those windows saying “We are looking for a solution to your problem online”
Haha yes those dialogs never helped me either.
I think the windows connection help wizard might have actually fixed a connection issue I had once. Out of more chances than I probably should have given it, considering how often it did dick all, despite my phone’s connection being fine.
I think there’s a rare race condition or something in the windows network stack because I’ve had four different machines suddenly lose the ability to connect to working networks, where sometimes toggling airplane mode would fix it, sometimes even that wouldn’t do anything and it needed a restart. It happened more often with wireless connections, but I’ve seen it affect wired ones, too.
It’s infuriating that you can’t just copy the text in those sometimes
“Question: I am getting error with code 0xblahblahblah. How to fix?”
“Deleted response”
Reply 1: “Youre a life saver mate, thank you.”
Reply 2: “I would kiss you if you were here”
Reply 3: “Absolute legend, this fix is so obvious, thank you for pointing it out!”
The problem is that “the same issue” here means “there’s any error at all with the MS Store”. Any discussion about there will be useless.
That key is probably the same for all store issues
Except the code covers SUCH a vague issue that it’s useless. Not very precise when any issue with the store gives you the same code. Maybe it couldn’t find a DNS record for the online store. Maybe its local db is corrupt. Maybe it’s been locked out administratively. Doesn’t matter which root cause, same error code, so it’s not a “precise” error code.
These may not be the case in this instance, but in many, many other instances, it sure has been
Don’t sign into Windows with an online account. You can still do offline only accounts and it fixes this problem. The Microsoft Store still works too but IDK why you’d use that.
Steps to reproduce
Open Terminal
Expected Behavior
It would be pretty nice, if the terminal would open
For what it’s worth, only one of my two systems is experiencing this issue.
The one with the issue is running windows 11, and the working system is running Linux.
Priceless.
LMAO the next action taken after that comment:
microsoft locked and limited conversation to collaborators
Marked as offtopic as well xD
Oh my god that is hillarious
What a joke
Its a work device so I’m signed in like a good little corporate peon, still they manage to fuck it up.
Moments like this are why people get frustrated—tools should get out of the way, not add extra hoops. Everyone’s setup works… until it suddenly doesn’t.
For anyone who’s interested, Microsoft have provided an update that’s about as helpful as you might have expected, right at the top of the Github issue where this has been reported.
! Note
What we Know
- There is an issue impacting all store applications on Windows as of 2026-01-21.
- There have been some reports that choosing to Repair the Terminal application has restored it to working order.
There have been some reports that choosing to Repair the Terminal application has restored it to working order.
… Or, you know, dont hook that shit so tight into your store that it breaks if the store is offline or something gets messed up? I have personally never seen applications randomly stop working on Linux (Unless i did something stupid, i once fucked up glibc for all flatpaks system-wide on Fedora), specially now that im on NixOS, its just not possible for a program’s files to get corrupted on NixOS since the store is read-only (Of course if it doesnt gracefully handle config errors and the config gets corrupted then it will break, but often times it would just be deleting the file and letting it create a new one, not reinstalling the application).
“Get help with this”
The real joke.
I had a similar error with a different application. Clicking “Get help with this” just opened the Documents folder in Explorer.
Did it help?
I’d guess the dialog was written by an AI that was never told to go implement the help function, but I know that the automated help or button to find help online rarely worked before AIs were capable of doing much of anything with code. Though odds are the broken non-AI help buttons were replaced with broken AI help buttons that were trained using the original broken code.
It’s always a link to a microsoft support page that lists one question some guy had three years ago with 5000 “I also have this problem” checkmarks and a single answer from an unpaid MS mod that basically tells you to restart your computer and then marks the question answered and permanently closed.
Always remember: Your OS should do nothing more than provide a GUI for you to access apps and run apps. Anything else is not necessary.
Your OS provides a GUI? fancy
Because people actually have a life.
The lines you draw are so arbitrary but at least you’re prepared to die on those hills.
Prey tell, what is this OS of yours that is not coercive and doesn’t contain bloat, yet has a full GUI as part of the operating system?
“Prey tell” lock in, man.
But also, Linux.
Okay be real, you want to do all your networking config and drive pools and high availability all through the CLI?? There’s still a reason I use the CLI in the GUI but thats just nuts
Girls, calm down, you’re both pretty. I was being sarcastic. Let’s not argue over a joke.
Honestly though if you pulled out a picture with 14 monitors all with terminals, I would be impressed
3 screens with 3 virtual desktops is my limit man.
From a non-technical user’s pov kinda true.
But not true at all when you enumerate the actual responsibilities of an OS.
I also want it to have a built-in clock and calendar in the taskbar. But Microsoft won’t even let me have that! They got rid of the calendar!
I still see a calendar if I click the clock on my work laptop. Though that might have been one of the settings I clicked while wondering why MS even thought this should change.
Ah, you’re right. Instead of bringing up the calendar, it brings up notifications, and you have to click a little pop-up button to see the calendar. Thank God I only have to worry about this on my work computer.
The OS shouldn’t even do that. That’s the job of the display manager and desktop environment
True.
Your OS can run your home server. No need for GUI if you know what you’re doing.
For some tasks (e.g. web browsing), you need a GUI. CLI browsers won’t cut it.
But what if my computer is JUST running Jellyfin? No need for a web browser?
99% of people just use their OS as a browser frontend. They don’t care about freedom, privacy, security, etc. They will just use whatever OS comes pre-installed. Thats why Linux’s greatest success on the desktop/laptop market as been ChromeOS. Not because it’s any better than Pop_OS!, Debian, etc. It’s literally just that ChromeOS comes preinstalled.
Yeah that makes a lot of sense. Still, I’ve had so many “last straw” moments with Windows that would make me consider Linux even if I was not familiar with it at all. It baffles me that there are relatively few people who give it a shot.
I suppose a lot of people just don’t want to or don’t have time to learn something new.
I’ve hit my last straw moment today trying to remove the setting forcing my password to change on a laptop that I fucking own. Windows 11 has disabled pretty much all user management features of local accounts now unless you’re signed into Microsoft and link your accounts.
Fucking bullshit.
I just need a spare weekend or two to make the swap now and throw wine on it for the games I play that refuse to run on Linux.
I just need a spare weekend or two to make the swap now and throw wine on it for the games I play that refuse to run on Linux.
if your primary storefront is via steam, you likely won’t even need to manage wine, steam will do that for you as part of the install process. You can use something like protonup or something to get GE editions of proton but, honestly it mostly works right off the gate.
Just be aware that proton can have conflicts if you try to use it on NTFS drives, you’ll need to manually specify UID and GID for the drive (via fstab or however you manage mounting drives) or you’ll get permission errors that won’t actually say what they are unless you ran steam via the terminal.
Unfortunately the games I’d need wine for don’t run through steam and have their own launchers ☹️
But good to know for my steam library at least.
No need to figure out WINE. Steam will figure it out for you. Just click the Play button.
Linux today is VERY different from Linux 10 years ago. The switch won’t take a whole weekend like it did for me when I first tried Linux many years ago. Just install something like Linux Mint (the most user friendly and stable Linux distro) and the set up will be as easy as something like windows or macos. You never have to touch the terminal if you don’t want to.
It’s true that most people just want instant on functionality with no need for major changes beyond colors and backgrounds. Totally fine too, for many that’s all they need. But as a “power user”, which would mean anyone that needs more than a portable browser, I was very disappointed to find that’s all that ChromeOS is (twas a used one in the family). And then when I researched putting actual Linux on it so it could do more… good god they locked that shit down hard. Not even worth that rabbit hole. And that was the intent of Google.
So the power user uses Linux.
The casual user uses ChromeOS (shitty Linux). Or preferably something like Pop_OS!, but I’m being unrealistic with this.
I see no problem here. You could replace pretty much everyone’s pre-installed OS with ChromeOS or Linux (or macOS I guess if they like MacBooks) and I don’t think most people would mind.
I have only ever seen someone use windows because they HAD to, not because they want to. Either they game, they use a software only on windows, it came pre-installed on their laptop and they don’t know or can’t bother to learn how to flash an ISO on a USB stick, etc.
I am completely fine with, and in fact am grateful for, the enshitification of windows 11. It will push more and more people to Linux. The enshitification of windows 8 is what made Steam shift from windows to SteamOS. I’m sure future enshitification will do just that: make people question why they are using windows in the first place.
Most chromebooks can be put into a dev mode(which requires factory reset…) in order to install a new OS on it. I have done it a few times.
being said, with how low power they are, they can’t really do much but what chromeos can do.
The early ones were easier. The one I had needed to do some mess with a grounding screw and some other stuff that I forgot (there are websites dedicated to the procedure guidelines and which requires what), and like you say, it’s not going to be able to do much anyway. Such a contrast with throwing Kubuntu on an old MacBook, and 10 minutes later it was better than new.
there are some gems though that are more capable. some are worth installing linux onto
When my ex’s grandparents needed a new computer I got them a chrome OS all in 1.
When I started dating her in 2013 her parents were paying for AOL like $25 a month. They also had cable Internet. Saved them like $1500 on paying for AOL because they thought they needed to pay to access the email.
Unfortunately, very true.
It sucks. But I’m pretty sure there’s some kind of bug going on in win 11 right now. I was even getting that earlier today when trying to open snipping tool after it was already open. I think they just borked some store check code somewhere.
I think they just borked some store check code somewhere.
The fact that this is even possible just demonstrates how broken Windows is fundamentally.
It’s probably all the vibe coding they do internally nowadays
Snipping tool has been fscked for some time now. Crashes all the time, freezes. My Linux box is so much more reliable
i was about to suggest using
wingetto reinstall it but then i realized that would require a functional terminal to accomplish, something i had taken for grantedSurely the underlying cmd cli is still there even if the Terminal app wrapper is broken
I was gonna suggest “just launch
cmddirectly”, but then remembered that this usualy just launches Terminal if it’s installed.That’s when you open PowerShell ISE.
It is, as is the native powershell terminal, thankfully.
windows terminal preview is standalone on their github. when i had windows thats how i installed it
yeah, back when I was maining windows, I went through a lot of trouble to install non-store versions.
Of course, some places lock down their employees too much for them to do that
We can’t even use Windows store. We have a bespoke portal that has a very small list of approved programs to install.
Yup, I know just where that happens. It’s probably a joy to work in your IT. They probably have a keyboard macro for “no”
I’m guessing this is a misleading post? Probably a random app in the store that’s called “terminal” that is broken and the actual windows command prompt is working fine.
Can confirm this is an actual issue from Microsoft impacting lots of normal system apps that update via the Microsoft Store and/or Windows Update.
I’ve seen it mess up Notepad, Snipping Tool to name a few.
It’s pretty egregious that a bug like this can mess up utilities already installed on your computer.
Windows is really feeling like a single-player video game that requires an always on connection.
Source: I’m an IT professional who has been helping people with this since yesterday.
More source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5729246/how-to-fix-error-code-0x803f8001
What’s the actual fuck Microsoft
They’re preparing to rent people desktop access over the internet. Gotta trim up that you don’t own shit store code.
Is that the same update that broke Windows App* authentication?
* their idiotic name for the new remote desktop
I maintain over a hundred windows 11 machines. I recently push new software that I had to manually configure on each machine. While doing this I checked for problems. Over half had terminal and other programs like notepad installed separately. All the machines are in a domain environment but windows 11 ignores many of the GPO’s I have in place. Its pathetic and just a reason to have to do more work. So I have no problem believing that terminal had been installed and then disabled due to some microsoft account nonsense.
Command prompt is slowly becoming legacy. Microsoft wants powershell to be its successor thus Terminal was born.
We use Windows 11 at work. One of the desktops has an error where you can log in but windows displays a notification to the effect of “You’re not logged in, your settings and app preference aren’t available.”
Other than Edge most of the built in programs don’t work. No errors, no notifications – clicking the icon to open them does nothing. Notepad, file explorer, etc.
Hating windows is the ultimate karma farm here on Lemmy. If you can somehow hate windows and Trump in one post, expect to see that shit at the top.
Lemmy doesn’t have karma
He should have said “dopamine farm for, number go up”
Semantic bullshit is another big karma farm here too. I could’ve said updoots, arrows, upvotes. Whatever pleases the Lemmings.
The unified number of combined points (what is refereed as Karma) doesn’t exist on Lemmy. There is some point system comment-by-comment, but it’s not unified. You can’t farm what doesn’t exist.
A bit more than a semantics, isn’t it?
The Microsoft Store is impressively bad. So many random errors that don’t give any helpful information that are impossible to fix.
Couldn’t install iTunes because my clock was wrong. That certainly wasn’t the ERROR I was presented with, but was ultimately the root cause.
That, coincidentally, was the very same evening that I decided to and did uninstall windows on that machine.
Installed Vivaldi and Brave from the MS Store on work laptop from the official pages. Got a Trojan in each that IT had to remove. Yeah no
I have no idea who thought it would be a good idea to give an error code to a user in Hexadecimal form, with no other information.
An error occurred: 0x 80070003
is hardly helpful at all.
Oddly enough, giving the general public exact error messages ends up costing you in support and reputation.
They obscure the messages because the inexperienced masses start digging up red herrings. Knowledge to someone with zero experience causes a lot of confusion.
The experienced and capable users look up the codes and think about it for a minute, check their vpn, maybe a health dashboard, maybe reboot.
Just about every complex machine out there give error codes instad of real messages, even when they have large displays capable of telling you exactly what the condition is.
I recently tried to install librewolf onto a W11 machine from the windows store. It won’t even launch that. Not even an error or nothing just gone.
don’t use the windows store, when not required you can never know what else they package into your apps. google and amazon’s android app stores do this, the latter is even open about adding tracking libs to apps
Well that’s the thing, it’s a pc I’m required to use and it got everything else behind administrators password if you catch my drift. (If I had my way it would be Linux)
For now I’ll have to make due with a ff that I tweak by hand where I can.
Don’t be too mean, but make sure your admin feels the heat.
Linux is good enough for the desktop for a fuckton of businesses. gentle pressure may get us there in a generatiohn or two
if it helps, I installed it today using winget which I liked.
Install using winget:
winget install LibreWolf.LibreWolf --source winget
What you already paid money for your OS? Fuck that. Help us sell your data for basic functionality too.

























