How to fix "You'll need a new app to open this calculator"

[harlan4096]

Windows 10 is no stranger to errors. But this one was new, and not a blue screen error. When I tried to run the Calculator application, it told me this. "You'll need a new app to open this calculator". I need an app to open an app? What?

Notice that the OK button is greyed out.

So, I decided to search the Microsoft Answers community. That's where users go with their error messages, and sure enough I found a thread detailing the exact same problem. A couple of Microsoft Agents had posted some fixes, which I hoped would fix the issue.

Here's a list of what I tried, and didn't work:

1. The first places I looked for a fix was Windows Update and the Windows Store app. Since my Windows 10 is new (had reset the PC a few days ago), I assumed that there was some pending update or something. But it was all up to date.

2. Running the System File Checker as an administrator is always a good step in troubleshooting Windows related errors. And, it turned out everything was fine, even though the Calculator app wouldn't run.

3. Next I tried the DISM command in an elevated Command Prompt "DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth". This too didn't resolve my problem.

4. The Windows Store reset command, "Wsreset.exe" which you can execute from the "Run" tool (Win + R), also failed to help me.

5. As a final resort, I tried running the following commands one by one, in an elevated Powershell:

* Get-AppxPackage -Name Microsoft.WindowsCalculator | Remove-AppxPackage
* Get-AppxPackage -Name Microsoft.WindowsCalculator | Add-AppxPackage

I rebooted the computer, hoping it would have fixed the issue. Running Calc.exe told me it didn't fix it. I wanted to "Reset" the Calculator from Settings > Apps & Features, but the app wasn't even listed there. This is when I began wondering if this was a more complicated issue than I had believed it to be.

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