The Curse of the Missing Calculator

How Can An Accountant Possibly Use A Computer Without The Aid Of A Trusted Calculator?

30 years after retiring my Texas Instruments Scientific calculator to the desk drawer, I like millions of accountants have become attached to the simple but capable calculator on Windows. Not only accountants buy everyone I know likes this little app and most have it pinned to their task bar.

The Start of the Curse

November 2021 we began upgrading personal computers (PCs) for our upcoming Cyber Essential Plus certification. It was at this time that the occasional user would report that the Calculator App was missing from their PC. It was also impossible for them to download the application (app) from the Microsoft Store. A support ticket was raised but no resolution was forthcoming. The users created their own workaround. Using an online calculator instead.

The Curse Comes to a Head

March 2022 and we are being audited for Cyber Essentials Plus. In order to comply with the audit all machines needed to be able to be remote monitored for security purposes. For this they need a TPM chip, our last batch of legacy user's PCs were replaced and either came with or were upgraded to Windows 11. This in itself brought the curse to a head. Not only had Calculators gone missing but Snippy too, and on some PCs we were missing Microsoft Store as well. What had we done differently? Nothing. The variation came in the machines, the build number of Windows 10/11 installed and probably whether the processor was Intel v AMD. Too many variables to draw a conclusion on a relative small sample size.

Who would have thought that a process replicated millions, if not billions of times, would cause such a a localised incident? It had not, researching on the internet it was discovered that we were not alone. I thought to myself, is this why we advocate to clients that we support to follow advice of N-1 for software adoption? Indeed yes. But N-1 was also impacted. Windows 10 machines too had the same issue.

It was time to roll up our sleeves and fight this curse. Tackling the problem what did each device have in common? Simply, the problem itself, "Windows Store was either missing or corrupt". Great, a simple search online should bring a swift and happy outcome.... Think again. Our friends at Microsoft are changing the world don't you know and they are re-engineering how Store works, and where it works, and when it works, and the tools to operate it. We were stuck in the middle of a transition by an institution that not always makes things as simple as they might. You will see at the end of the article that Microsoft does have the solution and it is in the public domain. They simply do not have any pointers to it.

Instead, for the simplest issue Microsoft does not publish a fix for. They advise use of SFC and DISM, neither worked. Re-install of Windows 10/11 did not work either. It was a curse, surely. Microsoft has cursed us by reminding us all that they control our Calculators and Snippy. There had to be a well documented fix involving lots of hacking and code and stuff, indeed there was, however it too no longer worked as some of the code may have been subject to IP controls. And some irony...

The Curse Compounded by Store being Corrupt

To install any app on Microsoft Store you need Microsoft Store to be installed and working, you do not need an account, but then you might, and you do not need to be logged into it, but then again you might. Some things are a little foggy in the world of the Microsoft community. To get your hopes up their is a WSreset tool for Windows Store (only works if you have it installed, it does not install if missing). We were at an impasse.

Two brains better than one

Me being older and wiser, and seen all this behaviour before know that Microsoft is migrating its estate to simplify engineer and adopting linux style approach to everything. There simply is no money, but cost, for Microsoft for provision operating systems hence the migration to a common platform and saying good bye to dot net. Announced about four years ago Microsoft is changing. A clue? We needed a second brain.

Our IT guy (he is so much more than that) is that brain, he is Mr Linux and happy to grub (Linux term) around with the best of them. Together we established some new behaviours:

1 Microsoft has majorly upgraded and merged Powershell - Why had they done this?

2 Microsoft has created its own Linux style app management solution called Winget (cool)

3 Windows Store is being deprecated but before then and while the transitions are in play it is a pre-requisite for adding apps, even with winget, annoyingly.

What has we learned from the above? A new way to install apps clearly (when it works, ie you have Windows Store active) and also the critical path for resolving this issue. Getting winget to work first then establishing a link to the Windows Store.

This actually worked, first we needed to install App Installer (see Assets)

Goodbye .exe hello msix

The migration mentioned about coincides with all this change. Historically we'd be looking for MSI/EXE files, not anymore we need msix packages to install using. A whole new world.

Great, or so we thought, here we go, use winget to load Microsoft Store. If only it were that easy. Instead you need to:

1. Locate Microsoft.WindowsStore_22110.1401.10.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle (eg version) and download it.
2. Download Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.7_7.2109.13004.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.appx as well, as you may need it. (we have not)

Install/Upgrade Microsoft Store, using example filenames above by.

1. Open an elevated PowerShell prompt, e.g. by selecting Start, typing PowerShell, and selecting the run as administrator link.
2. Run the command Add-AppxPackage -Path FullPathToTheMsixbundleFile, .e.g Add-AppxPackage -Path c:\users\username\downloads\Microsoft.WindowsStore_22110.1401.10.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle
3. If you get an error, open the downloads directory and double-click on the Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.7_7.2109.13004.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.appx file, then try again.

Dada, we have store in place. For fun we then used winget to install Calculator and it worked. Hurrah. Ditto Snippy, double hurrah. Now we could have done this directly in Windows Store, but where is the fun in that? Inner geek will out.

PS Microsoft hides access to Windows Store download site, by not telling you were it is. Use this site (at your own risk) to find/download the current release of the above

Is your calculator missing in Windows 11?

Issue resolution can be time consuming, frustrating and testing. By working together we can fix just about anything. Not only do we have a new shiny Cyber Essential Plus certificate but we also have our calculator back.

Thanks to an incredible team at Differentia Consulting for making a difference. You are brilliant.