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The article explains how to Fix App cannot be activated. This error message, which seems quite serious, appears when you try to open a file or launch an application. It includes the address of the file you are trying to launch in a pop-up.up along with the phrase “This application cannot be started while UAC is disabled”.
When opening a file in Windows 10/8, you may occasionally get an error warning that says, “This software cannot be enabled when UAC is disabled”. What should you do to fix this error? Now that MiniTool Solution has provided some useful solutions in this post, you can ask for help. This issue is related to a Windows 10 or Windows 8 glitch that prevents any native Windows software from being used with UAC disabled. Maybe you should modify a registry key, re-enable UAC and stuff. Here is the article to resolve The application cannot be activated.
5 ways to fix the app cannot be activated
Enable User Account Control
The error message states that “the application cannot be activated when UAC is disabled”, which is a pretty clear hint that the problem is related to the User Account Control settings. Therefore, re-enabling User Account Control is the most likely fix for the error message. You can enable UAC through Control Panel in Windows as follows.
Step 1: Open Run with your Windows key + R shortcut key.
Step 2: Enter ‘user account control settings‘ in the Run text box and press the Return key. This will open the window shown directly below.
Step 3: Drag the bar never notify up for the Only notify me when apps try to make changes to my computer’s UAC (default) context.
Step 4: tighten OK button.
Enable User Account Control Group Policy setting
Step 1: If your edition of Windows includes the Group Policy Editor, you may also need to re-enable UAC with your Group Policy setting. To do this, type ‘gpedit.msc’ in the Run accessory.
Step 2: Click Computer Configuration on the left of the Group Policy Editor window.
Step 3: then click Windows Settings > security settings > local policies > security options to the left of the Group Policy Editor.
Step 4: click on the User Account Control: Run All Admins in Admin Approval Mode setting to open the User Account Control Policy window.
Step 5: Then select the Able radio button.
Adjust the EnableLUA DWORD value
User Account Control is not actually turned off on newer Windows platforms, even when the UAC Control Panel slider is set to Never notify. Therefore, you may need to adjust the EnableLUA DWORD value to fix the “This application cannot be activated” error. This is how you can enable UAC again through Registry Editor.
Step 1: Type ‘regedit’ in the Run text box and click OK.
Step 2: Then navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesSystem in Registry Editor, as shown in the snapshot below.
Step 3: Select the System key on the left of the window.
Step 4: Double-click the EnableLUA DWORD to open the window on the snapshot directly below.
Step 5: Then enter 1 in the Value data box to enable UAC.
Step 6: tighten OK button.
Step 7: Close the Registry Editor window and restart Windows.
Reset MS Store app
Step 1: Resetting the MS Store app can usually fix various error messages from the app, so the resolution is worth it when UWP apps fail to open. To reset MS Store, press Cortana button on the taskbar.
Step 2: Type ‘Powershell’ in the search box, right-click Windows PowerShell and select Execute as administrator to open it.
Step 3: Then type ‘Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.Services.Store* | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)AppXManifest.xml” -Verbose}’ in PowerShell and press Return.
Open your files with alternative desktop software
This isn’t really a fix, but keep in mind that you can still open images and other types of files with software other than UWP apps. The error message “This application cannot be activated when UAC is disabled” only appears up for UWP apps. So instead of trying to open images with Photos, open them with alternative non-UWP software like FastStone Image Viewer or Paint.NET. This is how you can fix “This app cannot be activated when UAC is disabled” error in Windows to launch apps. Enabling UAC will normally fix the error message. Also, resetting Windows to its default settings with a factory reset, as covered in this post, can also reactivate your apps.
Conclusion
Here they are final from our article how to fix Application cannot be activated when UAC is disabled. In addition to the three techniques mentioned above, some users advise you to reset the MS (Microsoft Services) Store app and apply the latest OS update. If the above suggestions don’t work for you, try another option. The article is now complete and you know how to fix The application cannot be activated.