Are you running Windows 10 22H2 64-bit on an old CPU? Be careful...

[DLord]

Are you running Windows 10 version 22H2 64-bit on an old CPU such as Intel Core 2 family?  If so, be very careful before applying the recent updates. 

 

As reported in many bug reports and technical posts by the users, it has become evident that those old CPUs are no longer supported by Windows 10 22H2 officially, and recent updates from the late 2023 and January 2024 are braking many functions/components of the Windows 10.  From broken Microsoft Store app itself, to native Windows apps such as Windows Photo, Windows Calculator, etc. not opening/functioning, to enabling unsupported futures/instructions on the old CPUs, etc.  (Keep in mind that some users are reporting the very same issues happening even on much newer CPUs as well!)

 

Check the new supported CPU list for the Windows 10 22H2 and if your CPU is not listed, you will run to the mentioned problems and perhaps many more sooner or later.  They did not even bother to point out this important change in the supported hardware list to the users before releasing/applying the mentioned future update to their PCs.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-10-22h2-supported-intel-processors

 

Obviously the logical way would have been for Micro$oft to block such PCs from update to this version from the beginning, or at least hold back the later problematic updates, but apparently they are making still capable hardware obsolete, by forcing unsupported updates on the mentioned machines.  Even the technical MS staff are unaware of the situation and by going through the MS support posts, you can see that they are still instructing the users facing the related problems to take usual steps (DISM, SFC, Windows reset, fresh re-install, etc.) to no avail, not knowing that they are further wasting users' time.

 

It's simply another dirty MS tactic which started with the Windows 11 release, to force users to abandon their still capable old PCs for the benefit of the hardware makers.  I would understand their argue when it comes to the Windows 11 (although I do not agree), but the case of Windows 10 is totally different.  People updated their Windows 7 machines to Windows 10 with the promise of if your hardware is capable in the first place, you will be able to use Windows 10 until it's EOL.  However they have changed the hardware requirements before the mentioned EOL for no obvious good reason; without making any announcement! 

 

It should entirely be up to the users if they want to use an old and less secure hardware, while it is technically capable of running the OS.

 

So please excuse my french, but I feel entitled to once again post the following:

 

 

Edited February 5 by DLord

[DLord]

Complete list of affected apps (so far):

 

1. Calculator
2. Calendar
3. Films & TV
4. Photos
5. Paint 3D
6. 3D Viewer
7. Voice Recorder

8. Game Bar

9. Feedback Hub

 

Edited February 1 by DLord

[SL0TH]

I know AMD isn't specifically mentioned, but it's also specifically not mentioned either. And considering that I run a few FX series systems for their NUMA support I had to double check...

AMD Supported List:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-10-22h2-supported-amd-processors

Seems the entire lineup is still there from the FX-4100 onward, which is an Athlon 64 CPU from 2003

 

Edited February 1 by SL0TH

[DLord]

On 2/2/2024 at 2:20 AM, SL0TH said:

I know AMD isn't specifically mentioned, but it's also specifically not mentioned either. And considering that I run a few FX series systems for their NUMA support I had to double check...

AMD Supported List:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/minimum/supported/windows-10-22h2-supported-amd-processors

Seems the entire lineup is still there from the FX-4100 onward, which is an Athlon 64 CPU from 2003

 

Older AMD CPU owners are also reporting experiencing the problem.

It is being speculated that it may have something to do with the lack of SSE4a support on AMD CPUs and SSE4.2 on Intel CPUs.

 

UPDATE:

Quote

Hi, the Visual C++ team has identified the problem as a regression in the vclibs framework package that the Photos app and other apps depend on. The problem affects computers with older hardware (that do not support SSE 4.2 instructions). Microsoft is currently working on validating a solution and it's expected to rollout to affected customers soon.

 

Edited February 3 by DLord

[DLord]

Now newsworthy:

https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/windows-10-apps-break-after-microsoft-store-update-no-fix-in-sight-yet

https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/01/windows_10_users_errors_hardware/

Edited February 3 by DLord

[SL0TH]

@DLord Awesome info, thanks!

And for further reference, SSE 4.2 was added to AMD CPUs in their 2011 Bulldozer/Zambezi lineup:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulldozer_(microarchitecture)

[DLord]

2 hours ago, SL0TH said:

@DLord Awesome info, thanks!

And for further reference, SSE 4.2 was added to AMD CPUs in their 2011 Bulldozer/Zambezi lineup:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulldozer_(microarchitecture)

Thanks for the info.  Indeed you are correct, but the problem was reported with CPUs prior to that series.

Edited February 3 by DLord

[DLord]

Until Micro$oft provides a solution as promised, if you are affected and want to have your Windows Apps back you can follow these instructions, of course on your own risk.  So make a restore point before anything!

 

1. Find and download following MS .appx packages:(from https://store.rg-adguard.net/)

 

Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktop_8wekyb3d8bbwe:

Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktop_14.0.33519.0_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe.appx
Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktop_14.0.33519.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.appx

 

Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00_8wekyb3d8bbwe:

Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00_14.0.33519.0_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe.appx
Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00_14.0.33519.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.appx

 

2. Using Windows Powershell (not Powershell Coer/7) as admin, install and register the downloaded packages using following commands:

 

Add-AppxPackage Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktop_14.0.33519.0_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe.appx

Add-AppxPackage Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktop_14.0.33519.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.appx

Add-AppxPackage Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00_14.0.33519.0_x86__8wekyb3d8bbwe.appx

Add-AppxPackage Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00_14.0.33519.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.appx

 

And the problem will be solved.

 

 

***As of now, I am not marking this post as the solution, waiting for the final fix by MS or any better solution if provided.

Edited February 3 by DLord

[DLord]

Just FYI, new reports indicates same issue on Windows 11.  Obviously those users have upgraded to Window 11 bypassing the minimum hardware requirements with the existing hacks.

However the provided solution works for them as well.

 

Once this issue of MS Store and Windows apps are resolved (fingers crossed), we have to wait and see if the rest of the issues related to the recent updates will be addressed or not.

Edited February 4 by DLord

[DLord]

Some users have received updates through Windows Store which has fixed the broken apps, while others have not received any updates.  I cannot verify the situation myself since I have fixed the issue on my PC using the above provided manual fix.

It would be interesting if anyone affected here could verify this.

Thanx.

[DLord]

Available solutions for the MS Store and Win Apps issue:

1. The above mentioned manual fix.

 

2. Install the following packages from the online Microsoft Store (which takes care of the above process):

   Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 UWP Desktop Runtime Package

   Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 UWP Runtime Package

 

3. Wait for Microsoft Store update to be available in your region.  But keep in mind that some users mentioned they had to uninstall and reinstall their Windows Apps alongside the mentioned update to fix the problem.

 

One problem solved, so many more remaining after the recent updates.

[DLord]

Notice:  MS Store is updating Windows Terminal to the recently released version(v1.19.10573.0) and once the update is applied, same problem happens (the app opens and immediately closes/crashes)!

This is the very same problem that we experienced before with other Store apps and I suspect the same issue is behind both cases.  Until the reason behind this problem is clear/solved, I advise against updating Windows Terminal (turn MS Store auto update off).

Edited March 3 by DLord

[DLord]

Oh well, as expected here we go again:

https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/16794  

[DLord]

Windows Terminal issue is also related to SSE 4.2 (POPCNT instruction).

They are yet to fix the problem!

[DLord]

There is a report of miscompilation in VS 17.8.6 related to POPCNT [here]

Quote

Everything worked great before Visual Studio 17.8, so 17.7.7 was building perfectly fine apps this way. Starting with 17.8.* my binary started crashing with Illegal Instruction on older hardware, on this code part from the Concurrency library

 

Apparently it is fixed in VS 17.9.1

Quote

Fixed a bug where the libconcrt.lib used when static linking could contain an SSE 4.2 instruction that was illegal on older X64 systems.

 

So the solution would be for developers to upgrade VS to v17.9  VS and MSVC, and rebuild/recompile their code.  Until then, all the apps built with VS17.8 will keep crashing on older X64 CPUs on start.

Edited March 12 by DLord

[DLord]

Apparently miscompilation problem is due to a specific version of MSVC that is being used by VS!

Quote

There's a compiler bug in MSVC 19.38 that results in the output of the CPUID instruction being misinterpreted, among other things. It turns out that the 1057x build series of Terminal was built with MSVC 19.38.

Edited March 12 by DLord