Unable to open Appstream on multiple machines, even freshly installed newbuilds

Question

Hi,

I'm experiencing an issue where any version of Appstream newer than 1.1.398 fails to launch even on machines with freshly installed Windows.

When double clicking the desktop icon it never opens, upon checking the Windows event logs it shows:
1.).net runtime
Application: appstreamclient.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.IO.FileNotFoundException
2.)Application Error
Faulting application name: appstreamclient.exe, version: 1.1.1130.0, time stamp: 0x63d1c1e2
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.22000.1880, time stamp: 0x099e63f3
Exception code: 0xe0434352
Fault offset: 0x0000000000052bac
Faulting process id: 0xde4
Faulting application start time: 0x01d97c6ac0da3e58

For troubleshooting I installed the latest version of Appstream (1.1.1154) on a brand new fresh install of Windows 11 and verified the same issue occurs and the same errors as above show up in the event log.  I also installed the latest .net 4.8 and the same thing happens.

Rolling back to 1.1.398 and forcing it NOT to update seems to be the only resolution for now.  What could be the problem?

Based on the error message it would appear that Appstream is looking for a file that doesn't exist, how would I go about locating said file and placing it where Appstream expects it to be?

Answer

Please follow the steps and let us know how it goes.

1. Check if there are any pending Windows updates that need to be installed. Sometimes, missing updates can cause issues with software applications.
2. Try running the application as an administrator. Right-click on the Appstream icon and select "Run as administrator" to see if it makes any difference.
3. Check the Appstream log files for more information. You can find the log files by navigating to the following directory:

```
C:\ProgramData\Amazon\AppStream\Logs
```

Look for any error messages or exceptions that might give you more information about what's going wrong.

4. Try running the application in compatibility mode. Right-click on the Appstream icon and select "Properties", then click on the "Compatibility" tab. Check the box that says "Run this program in compatibility mode for" and select an earlier version of Windows that the application worked on before.

Unable to open Appstream on multiple machines, even freshly installed newbuilds

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