u/EnvironmentalKey7745

I have tried so many fixes, I had a long conversation with chatgpt but im pretty sure its just walking me in circles bc it hasnt fixed anything. No matter what I do I keep getting error 0x80073CF9 when updating xbox, gaming services, GAME BAR, app installer, and windows web experience. After some digging I found that some ACL was corrupted, the one for \programfiles\windowsapps. I asked gpt how to fix it but It cant figure out how. Dism and sfc dont fix it

Ive tried wsreset, ive tried terminate, repair, and reset in the settings app, ive tried using winget, i tried to use the troubleshooter but then it makes me install GET HELP from store which of course, gives me the same error. Ive tried more but honestly i dont even remember anymore I asked Chatgpt to summarize everything we've tried, here it is:

SUMMARY

Title: Microsoft Store apps fail with 0x80073CF9 / AppX Deployment Stage failed 0x80070490 — tried many repairsI am trying to fix a Windows Store/AppX issue where some apps will not install or update. The affected apps are:

Microsoft Gaming Services
Xbox Gaming Overlay / Game Bar
Microsoft Desktop App Installer
Windows Web Experience Pack

Other apps install/update normally.

Error:0x80073CF9

Event Viewer shows:

AppX Deployment operation failed for package
Microsoft.GamingServices_36.113.14003.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe
Deployment Stage operation with target volume C:
failed with error 0x80070490
(Element not found)

**System info:**Windows 10/11 (AtlasOS modified install)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B560 DS3H AC-Y1
CPU: i7-11700F
RAM: DDR4 2667 JEDEC

Things tried:
Windows repair commands
sfc /scannow
No useful repair.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
No useful repair.

chkdsk
No fix.

AppX re-registration

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | ForEach {
Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"
}
This produced some expected errors:0x80073D02 because apps were in use
0x80073CF9 related to package staging

The important package error was:

MdOdrMcpFilterPackage
Package is currently paused
The package must be Staged

Checked: AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC) It was running.

Checked WindowsApps permissions
Found a corrupted permission entry on C:\Program Files\WindowsApps
Specifically an ACL entry showed as corrupted.

Tried resetting ACLs:

icacls "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps" /reset /t /c
Also checked ownership/inheritance.

Checked AppX registry state

Checked

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Appx

Found:

PurgeList
DirtyPackages
Containing:

Microsoft.GamingServices_36.113.14003.0
Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay_7.326.5041.0
Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_1.28.240.0
MicrosoftWindows.Client.WebExperience
AppX cleanup taskFound:\Microsoft\Windows\AppxDeploymentClient\

Pre-staged app cleanup was disabled.

Enabled it:
Enable-ScheduledTask -TaskPath "\Microsoft\Windows\AppxDeploymentClient\" -TaskName "Pre-staged app cleanup"
Ran it. It cleared most dirty packages. Remaining:

Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay

Removed stale PurgeList entry
Opened PowerShell as SYSTEM:

whoami
nt authority\system

Ran:

Remove-ItemProperty \`` -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Appx\PurgeList" ` -Name DirtyPackages`

This succeeded.

Afterward:

Get-ItemProperty ...\PurgeList

showed no DirtyPackages.

Verified AppX state
Ran:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.GamingServices

Result:
Status: Ok

Same for:XboxGamingOverlay
DesktopAppInstaller
WebExperience

Checked AppX volume/database paths

Everything exists:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository
and:StateRepository-Machine.srd
were present.

Tried reinstalling / registering packages
No change.

Current state

The packages show as installed and healthy
Microsoft.GamingServices
Status: Ok

but Store still fails.

The Store attempts to stage a newer package version:

Microsoft.GamingServices_36.113.14003.0
but that folder/version does not exist in:C:\Program Files\WindowsApps
Only the older installed version exists.

Error remains:0x80073CF9
0x80070490
Element not found
Question:
Does this point to a damaged AppX database/state repository, or is there a way to force AppX to forget the missing 36.113 package and reinstall cleanly?

thats the end of the chatgpt summary. All apps affected still are. I also have an app with no name or details trying to update