Force-remove a Windows 10 Appx package, skipping any errors that might occur

3

I bought the pre-order version of Forza Motorsport 7 in September. During installation of the pre-order, an error occurred which left the installation mostly installed. Forza Motorsport is delivered via the Windows Store, and is distributed via the Appx App Packager.

Now that Forza Motorsport 7 has "gone gold", I'd like to install the full version of the game. Typically this automatically occurs when you run the pre-order "stub" application, however because of the problem during the initial installation, the full game is not downloading.

My first thought was do a simple "uninstall and re-install", however attempting to uninstall the app using the "Apps and Features" page in Settings results in this error:

We couldn't uninstall Forza Motorsport 7.
The operation did not complete successfully. Try again in a bit.
The error code is 0x8000000e, in case you need it.

Not helpful. Next I used Get-AppxPackage *Apollo* (Apollo is the code name for this game) via PowerShell to obtain the Appx Package Name for the game, then used Remove-AppxPackage "Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_64__xwekyb3d8bbwe" to uninstall the app. That doesn't work with the following error:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Remove-AppxPackage Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
Remove-AppxPackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073CFA, Removal failed. Please contact your software vendor.
Deployment Remove operation with target volume E: on Package Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe from: failed with error 0x80070002. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=235160 for help diagnosing app deployment issues.
NOTE: For additional information, look for [ActivityId] 59ff267b-3c76-0002-2d54-ff59763cd301 in the Event Log or use the command line Get-AppxLog -ActivityID 59ff267b-3c76-0002-2d54-ff59763cd301
At line:1 char:1
+ Remove-AppxPackage Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbw ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : WriteError: (Microsoft.Apoll...__8wekyb3d8bbwe:String) [Remove-AppxPackage], IOException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : DeploymentError,Microsoft.Windows.Appx.PackageManager.Commands.RemoveAppxPackageCommand

As recommended in the output above, I ran Get-Appxlog to see the actual error:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-AppxLog -ActivityID 59ff267b-3c76-0002-2d54-ff59763cd301

Time                      ID           Message
----                      --           -------
2017-10-03 2:43:13 PM     603          Started deployment Remove operation on a package with main parameter: Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe and Options: 0. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=235160 for help diagnosing app
                                       deployment issues.
2017-10-03 2:43:13 PM     10002        Creating Resiliency File C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository\b5d59b38-d0ce-4730-a93c-da39a1a1d34e_S-1-5-21-2808904017-3304153599-3912926511-1001_2.rslc for Remove Operation on Package
                                       Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.
2017-10-03 2:43:13 PM     607          Deployment Remove operation on package Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe has been de-queued and is running for user SID S-1-5-21-2808904017-3304153599-3912926511-1001.
2017-10-03 2:43:13 PM     605          The last successful state reached was BundleProcessed. Failure occurred before reaching the next state Indexed. hr: 0x80070002
2017-10-03 2:43:13 PM     401          Deployment Remove operation with target volume E: on Package Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe from:   failed with error 0x80070002. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=235160 for help
                                       diagnosing app deployment issues.
2017-10-03 2:43:13 PM     404          AppX Deployment operation failed for package Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe with error 0x80073CFA. The specific error text for this failure is: Deployment Remove operation with target volume E: on
                                       Package Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe from:   failed with error 0x80070002. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=235160 for help diagnosing app deployment issues.

Error: 0x80070002 seems to indicate a "file not found" error. Although the messaging doesn't show which file was not found. So helpful.

Next, I tried using DISM.exe to remove the package:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>C:\Windows\system32\Dism.exe /online /remove-provisionedappxpackage /packagename:Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.15063.0

Image Version: 10.0.15063.0


Error: 2

The system cannot find the file specified.

The DISM log file can be found at C:\WINDOWS\Logs\DISM\dism.log

Relevant content from the DISM log file:

2017-10-03 14:57:36, Info                  DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=8912 TID=10092 Processing 'packagename' option at index 2 - CAppxManager::ProcessCommandRemoveAllUserAppx
2017-10-03 14:57:36, Info                  DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=8912 TID=10092 packagename='Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe' - CAppxManager::ProcessCommandRemoveAllUserAppx
2017-10-03 14:57:36, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=8912 TID=10092 Failed to open 'C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\AppxMetadata\AppxBundleManifest.xml'. - CPackageAdapter::GetOptionalPackagesForMainPackage(hr:0x80070002)
2017-10-03 14:57:36, Warning               DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=8912 TID=10092 Getting optional package list for 'Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe' hit error 0x80070002 - CAppxManager::RemoveAllUserAppx
2017-10-03 14:57:36, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=8912 TID=10092 Failed to get the list of packages to remove - CPackageAdapter::DeregisterMainPackageAndGetDependencyPackages(hr:0x80070002)
2017-10-03 14:57:36, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=8912 TID=10092 Failed to deregister main package and get its dependent packages - CPackageAdapter::DeregisterPackageOnline(hr:0x80070002)
2017-10-03 14:57:36, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=8912 TID=10092 Failed to deregister packages. - CPackageAdapter::RemovePackageOnline(hr:0x80070002)
2017-10-03 14:57:36, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=8912 TID=10092 Encountered failure while removing package Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe - CAppxManager::RemoveAllUserAppx(hr:0x80070002)
2017-10-03 14:57:36, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=8912 TID=10092 Failed to remove package 'Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe' - CAppxManager::ProcessCommandRemoveAllUserAppx(hr:0x80070002)
2017-10-03 14:57:36, Error                 DISM   DISM Appx Provider: PID=8912 TID=10092 Failed processing command to remove Appx package - CAppxManager::ExecuteCmdLine(hr:0x80070002)

Using the command-line, I can verify that C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.ApolloBaseGame_1.0.2.2_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\AppxMetadata\AppxBundleManifest.xml does not exist. However, I cannot create the file, nor can I copy a file into that location. Even if I run cmd.exe as system, via PsExec:

psexec -e -i -h -s cmd.exe

Is there some way to manually get rid of an Appx package that cannot be uninstalled? Alternately, is there some way to manually trigger a re-install of an appx?

I could boot from a Windows PE environment and create a fake AppxBundleManifest.xml file, but I feel like a fake xml manifest will likely just make things worse. Presumably that manifest file typically contains dependency information that is needed by the uninstall process.

Do I have to format C: and re-install? Really?

windows-10
uninstall
uwp
asked on Super User Oct 3, 2017 by Hannah Vernon

3 Answers

2

The only way I was able to resolve this was by reinstalling Windows cleanly. In my opinion, Microsoft should create a way to force re-install an app.

answered on Super User Jul 3, 2018 by Hannah Vernon
0

No need to Reinstall Windows 10, I had the same problem, the difference is that all my games are installed in another HD on an external HD, this way, just disconnect the HD restart windows, click on the button to run the game and it will appear a message to reinstall, just connect the HD again and reinstall the Game.

answered on Super User Jan 26, 2019 by Alexandre GG - HighTech
-1
Get-AppxPackage *Apollo* | Remove-AppPackage

This command helped me.

answered on Super User Jan 5, 2021 by Aram Hakobyan • edited Jan 6, 2021 by Stephen Rauch

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