We have been investigating the root cause of the Creators Update breaking the start menu and Microsoft Store apps and have found both the root cause and a solution.
The Issue:
After Windows 10 is updated to the Creators Update, a Winclone image is created using the WIM format. When that image is restored, the start menu will not open. Some apps, such as Windows Explorer work fine. However, Microsoft Store apps and the Start Menu do not launch…
After investigating the root cause, it was determined that the apps that would not launch were sandboxed apps that had their data in ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository. Winclone was not capturing a special permission (ACL) that allowed sandbox apps to access their data (specifically, a conditional access control entry in the Access Control List). When the image was restored, the data was intact but the apps could not access their data due to this entry in the ACL and it prevented them from launching. Once the correct ACLS were applied using “icacls” from a known good backup of the permissions, behavior returned to normal and all apps could launch.
Resolution:
In our testing, images created with WIM mode in Winclone 6.1.2 or later could successfully be restored and the start menu and other apps launched as needed. Both a new installation of Creators Updated (build 1703) and Anniversary edition updated to Creators were tested with cloning and restoring 6.1.2 successfully.
If you have an image that shows this behavior, recreate the image using 6.1.2 or later.