I had this problem with the Microsoft.People appx ('app', 'universal app', or whatever the official name is) but it could equally have been any other appx, and below is my explanation of why this problem happened and how I finally managed to fixed it.
My Windows 10 64-bit installation thought that Microsoft.People 10.0.10220.0 was still installed because, for some reason, the package had not been fully un-installed. A newer version Microsoft.People 10.0.10500.0 was in the Store.
I could not remove the Microsoft.People tile from the Start Menu, even though 10.0.10220.0 was not installed and not launch-able. Neither trying to un-install Microsoft.People via Windows 10's GUI, nor trying to upgrade Microsoft.People via the Store, worked
(the Store message was: “Try that again Something went wrong. The error code is 0x80070003, in case you need it.” ).
As the package folder for Microsoft.People 10.0.10220.0 no longer existed in my installation, I could not remove Microsoft.People 10.0.10220.0 using PowerShell commands either, since PowerShell could not find the missing manifest file for the package, as
shown below:
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Remove-AppxPackage Microsoft.People_10.0.10220.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
Remove-AppxPackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073CF6, Package could not be registered.
error 0x80070003: Reading manifest from location: AppxManifest.xml failed with error: The system cannot find the path specified.
.
NOTE: For additional information, look for [ActivityId] 715b1393-78cf-0000-5e97-5b71cf78d101 in the Event Log or use the command line Get-AppxLog -ActivityID 715b1393-78cf-0000-5e97-5b71cf78d101
At line:1 char:1
+ Remove-AppxPackage Microsoft.People_10.0.10220.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : WriteError: (Microsoft.Peopl…__8wekyb3d8bbwe:String) [Remove-AppxPackage], IOException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : DeploymentError,Microsoft.Windows.Appx.PackageManager.Commands.RemoveAppxPackageCommand
So, to me it appears that Windows 10 has a design shortcoming: If an appx package is partly missing, it is not possible to forcibly un-install the rest of it or to upgrade the package to a newer version.
Fortunately I found a blog post by someone who happened to have that version of the package installed and who was able to e-mail me the missing package folder and files of Microsoft.People 10.0.10220.0 that my installation required in order to un-install
Microsoft.People 10.0.10220.0. I simply copied them to the folders where they would have been prior to un-installation, and then it was possible to un-install Microsoft.People 10.0.10220.0 and install Microsoft.People 10.0.10500.0.
So, to recap,. if, for whatever reason, some appx files are missing (due to, e.g., a failed upgrade or a failed un-install) then Windows 10 is:
a) unable to un-install the remaining folders, files and Registry entries of the older appx package;
b) unable to upgrade to a newer version of the appx package.
I have noticed the same phenomenon with other packages in other user accounts in Windows 10.
Anyway, the detailed blog post of the person who kindly supplied me with the missing files, and who posted files for other appx packages that could be missing in your Windows 10 installation, can be found at:
http://www.techtantri.com/windows-10-apps-not-working-download-apps-folder/
All the other blog posts and articles I found on the Web assume that all the files of the package one wishes to remove still exist in one’s installation and that the PowerShell command Remove-AppxPackage will work. However, if the files are no longer there
(for whatever reason), the Remove-AppxPackage command fails and you are stuck.