How to Repair or Reset an App in Windows 11

If a Windows 11 app suddenly stops opening, crashes at launch, or behaves incorrectly, you may not need to uninstall it immediately. Windows provides Repair and Reset options for many apps.

The two options are not interchangeable: Reset is more destructive to app data.

Repair the app first

1. Open Settings.
2. Go to Apps > Installed apps.
3. Find the affected app.
4. Open its three-dot menu.
5. Select Advanced options if available.
6. Select Repair.

Repair attempts to fix the application without deleting its stored app data and settings. Test the app again before doing anything else.

Use Reset only when Repair does not help

Return to the same Advanced options page and choose Reset.

Reset reinstalls or restores the application to its default state and can remove its local settings, sign-in state, preferences, cache, and other app data.

What Reset can remove

Reset can sign you out of the app, clear cached downloads, remove local preferences, and erase data stored only inside that application’s local package. Cloud-synced information may return after you sign in again, but do not assume every app syncs everything.

Before resetting a note-taking, finance, password, creative, or specialist business app, check where it stores local data and whether you have a current backup or verified cloud sync.

Not every app has Repair or Reset

Some traditional desktop applications do not expose Advanced options in Settings.

For those programs, open Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features, select the program, and look for Repair, Change, or Modify.

Update the app before resetting it

If the application came from Microsoft Store, open the Store and check for updates. For a traditional desktop application, use the vendor’s updater or support site.

A known crash fixed in a newer build will not be solved permanently by repeatedly resetting the older version.

Check permissions when only one feature fails

If a camera, microphone, location, file-access, or notification feature is broken while the rest of the app works, check Settings > Privacy & security before resetting the entire application.

Reinstall only after Repair and Reset fail

Uninstall the app, restart Windows if appropriate, then reinstall it from Microsoft Store or the official software publisher.

Do not download an installer from a generic software-download website merely because the original installer is hard to find.

What if several Windows apps fail at once?

If multiple built-in apps, Settings pages, and Windows components are breaking simultaneously, the problem may be broader than one app. Run Windows Update, DISM, and System File Checker, or use the Windows Update repair-reinstall option.

Repair is the safer first click. Reset is a useful second step, but only after you understand what local data the app may lose.

Restart before blaming the app package

If the application broke immediately after an update, restart Windows before resetting anything. Pending servicing, shared runtimes, Store updates, and background app updates can all leave an application in a temporary bad state until the next restart.

Also test whether the problem affects only one Windows user account. If the app works in another account, resetting the whole Windows installation would be excessive.

Official references

Microsoft Support — Windows app support tools: Repair and ResetOfficial reference