Microsoft explains how to fix the recently broken Photos app in Windows 11

About a month ago, Microsoft issued a notification about a bug plaguing Windows 11 users and breaking the Photos app for them. Now, several weeks later, Microsoft has an official workaround for the affected customers.

In case you missed it, a conflict between a recent Photos app update and certain policies made it impossible to launch the app in some environments. It would display a loading spinner and then hopelessly crash. The bug mainly affected organizations and business customers since regular home users rarely have any policies applied to their home machines. Another good thing is that there is now an official solution (temporary, but still).

The solution Microsoft suggests applying is not very elegant, but it will fix things for IT admins. Here is what they need to do:

1. Download the latest WInAppSDK from Latest downloads for the Windows App SDK - Windows apps | Microsoft Learn. Select from the links titled “Installer” and choose the appropriate one for your system.
   If you’re unsure if you should download an Installer labeled with x64, x86, or arm64, open the System Information view by opening the Start menu and typing “System Information”. Then select System Information from the results. Once the System Information window appears, note the “System Type” field on the right-side panel of the window. It should denote either an x64, x86, or arm64 based system.
2. Right click the windowsappruntimeinstall-x64.exe file and select ‘Run as administrator’. A command prompt window will open and display some text as the installation is taking place. Please note that no action is required while this command prompt window appears, and it will close without notice after the installation has completed.
3. If you're an IT administrator, you can execute this installer in your environment using either system or admin context. The parameter “-quiet" is specific to this installer and can added to an execution command to prevent user interaction with the prompt. The installer only needs to be run once per device (not per user).

Microsoft says it is working on a permanent solution that will be available soon. In addition to offering a workaround for the broken Photos app, Microsoft confirmed problems with the Windows Agent Update API. It also has a solution officially provided by Microsoft.