We have a Windows 7 domain and don’t use any packaged applications. These were introduced with Windows 8 and allow the secure distribution and installation of apps from an app store. Windows 8 and Windows 10 both give access to the Windows Store and it is (or will be) possible to have a Company Store and manage app installations through System Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM).

If Edge and other packaged apps won’t launch in Windows 10 then the first thing to do is check your Applocker settings.

Applocker is a group policy that ensures that users can only launch permitted applications. When working in the Group Policy editor and editing the policy it can be configured at,

• Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Application Control Policies > AppLocker

As can be seen from the image below you can configure settings for .exe, installers, scripts and packaged applications.

When we installed our first Windows 10 computer we found that packaged apps would not launch. Inspection of the Applocker event log,

• Event Viewer
  • Applications and Services Logs> Microsoft > Windows > Applocker

Showed that entries each time we tried to launch a packaged applications such as Edge. We found that we did not have any entries in the Packaged App Rules section. This stopped all packaged apps running.

To fix this problem we right-clicked and created “Default Rules” that allowed all packaged applications to run. To verify the fix,

1. Login to a Windows 10 computer as admin
2. At the Administrative Command Prompt enter

   gpupdate /force

3. reboot
4. Logon
5. Verify fix by launching Edge and checking the event log

After you have verified the fix you will want to tighten up your policies and here is a useful article on how to manage Applocker package app rules.