Microsoft issues a workaround for the HoloLens app issues

Last week I wrote about a problem with HoloLens that causes the Microsoft Store and apps like Photos and Microsoft Edge to crash. The issue is related to a .NET framework bug introduced in an update and Microsoft have a workaround that prevents you having to reset your HoloLens.

The workaround has a few steps but it’s better than doing a reset.  Here are the steps:

We have found a supported mitigation, that does not involve resetting devices:

Please download this zip file from the Microsoft Download Center. Unzipping will produce two files. Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.1.7.appx and Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.1.7.appx

Please verify that your device is dev unlocked. If you haven’t done that before the instructions to do that are here.

You then want to get into the Windows Device Portal. Our recommendation is to do this over USB and you would do that by typing http://127.0.0.1:10080 into your browser.

Once you have the Windows Device Portal up we need you to “side load” the two files that you downloaded. To do that you need to go down the left side bar until you get to the “Apps” section and click on “Apps”.

You will then see a screen that is similar to the below. You want to go to the section that says “Install App” and browse to where you unzipped those two APPX files. You can only do one at a time, so after you select the first one, then click on “Go” under the Deploy section. Then do this for the second APPX file.

At this point we believe your applications should start working again and that you can also get to the Store.

In some cases, it is necessary run the additional step of launching the 3D Viewer app before affected apps will launch.

We appreciate your patience as we work to get this resolved.