The Xbox for Windows app can EAD

I've tried to pre-install Starfield (Bethesda Game Studio's latest release) through the XBox app on my Windows 10 PC and it was an ordeal.

When I first started working on it nearly a week ago, I was able to install any game but Starfield through the PC GamePass system, so I thought that might be normal because the game had yet to be released. While there were many posts from PC GamePass users reporting that they also were unable to pre-install the game, at least 2 people showed (with screenshots) that they were able to pre-install the game, so I thought I'd try troubleshooting the issue. After all, I'm a Certified Reboot Specialist (tech support agent), so this should be easy to figure out!

I could not be more wrong...

Frowny Face of Doom

When I first tried to install Starfield, I'd get a "Frowny Face of Doom", illustrated below.

Because I bought Windows 10 with a separate Microsoft account than the one I use for my Xbox activities, and the Microsoft Store app was logged in with the Windows 10 MS account, I thought that I'd sign out of the Store app then back in with my Xbox account. After completing this process and relaunching the Xbox app, I was now able to view a Pre-Install button on Starfield, so I thought this corrected the problem. Unfortunately, that "success" was short-lived because the game would start to download then generate a generic error (0x80004005) whenever I'd try to install it.

[No screenshots as I didn't think it noteworthy at the time]

This issue persisted after signing out of both the MS Store and Xbox app, rebooting my PC, and signing into both the Store and Xbox app with my "Xbox Microsoft Account".

Maybe the Real Error was the 0x80004005 We Made Along the Way!

The error code 0x80004005 is used by Microsoft to denote some sort of issue with downloading a file from their servers. Some Googlin' showed me that they use this for Windows Update errors, Xbox game installation errors (i.e. the reason I got it), Microsoft Store download errors, and probably a dozen other things that I've forgotten about. 

There's also a multitude of articles available regarding how to fix this error code, but most give the same generic advice of:

1. Reboot your computer
2. Reinstall the app
3. Reinstall Windows

This article proved to be the most complete entry on addressing Xbox app issues:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/getting-error-code-0x80004005-when-i-try-to-launch/0d589d64-c34f-4cf0-8502-4ff08c42f2bc

For posterity (because they could delete their forum some day), the steps are copied below.

For this error code (0x80004005), I would recommend you to start with these troubleshooting steps:

- Go to Xbox.com and click Sign In.

- If there are problems with your account, follow the instructions to solve them.

- Go to start > Search for PowerShell > Right click > Run as administrator. Type the following command and press enter:

get-appxpackage Microsoft.GamingServices | remove-AppxPackage -allusers

- Press Windows + R and type in "regedit". Press enter.

- Search for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services

- Delete the folders "GamingServices", "GamingServices.net" (if they're still there).

- Go to Start > Settings > Apps > Apps & features > Microsoft Store > Advanced Options > Reset.

- Go to Start > Settings > Apps > Apps & features > Xbox App > Advanced Options > Reset.

- Press Windows + R. Type TEMP and press enter. Delete all the files inside this folder. Repeat this step by typing %TEMP% and Prefetch. Delete everything on both folders too.

- Press Windows + R. Type WSRESET and press enter.

- Click on Start > Search for Credential manager > Windows credentials. Search for Xbl|DeviceKey, click on it and then Remove. Also, remove all the XblGrts and XboxLive credentials.

- Delete Accounts and Cache folders at:

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.XboxIdentityProvider_8wekyb3d8bbwe\AC\TokenBroker

- Also delete Microsoft Store local cache files at:

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsStore_8wekyb3d8bbwe

- If you're using a proxy, please stop using it for now:

- Press Windows Key + R. Type inetcpl.cpl and press Enter. Click the Connections tab, and then click LAN settings. Uncheck the Use a proxy server for your LAN check box. Click Ok.

- Please check if Date and Time is set correct. Uncheck "Set the time automatically", do it manually.

- Restart your computer. Run Powershell as administrator and run the following command:

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

- Restart your computer one more time. Open the Microsoft store and sign in with your Microsoft account. Then, open the Xbox App and sign in with the same account as the Microsoft store.

Basically, the article guides you through fully resetting everything related to the Xbox app's installation system, clearing the cache that it uses, and reinstalling the app packages that the Xbox app relies upon to install games.

In a better world, this would've fixed my problem. Unfortunately, my problem persisted.

Artisanal, Hand-Crafted, Reinstallation

Because my issue persisted, I tried manually reinstalling the Xbox app from Microsoft's website, as this version allegedly bundles the Gaming Services system in with the client.

The download link is:

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/apps/xbox-app-for-pc

Unfortunately, this also failed because of another error code that I didn't get a screenshot of: 0x80072efd

Search results for this error code were as diverse as the results for the 0x80004005 code. The steps within the "support articles" (i.e. Microsoft community forum posts) was near-identical to the steps for the 0x80004005 code. However, one search result led to:

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/hardware-network/connect-network/server-connectivity-xbox-app-displays-blocked

While this article didn't directly help me solve my problem, it clued me into an issue which led to me figuring the problem out.

One of the suggested steps is to reset the Windows Defender Firewall to the default policy. Now, I could do this, but I intentionally don't use the default policy because I find it to be too "open" for my preferences.

However, I temporarily disabled the Windows Defender Firewall as well as the Windows Defender antimalware scanner's Real-Time Monitoring mode, then re-ran the Xbox app installer.

This finally let me reinstall the Xbox app and begin installing games.

Because disabling my computer's firewall and antimalware scanner every time I want to install a game is "not a real solution", I further investigated the issue until I found something that I think explains the problem.

   1. Teredo was not enabled

The "Server Connectivity Xbox App" link above suggested that Teredo needs to be enabled and granted a suitable exception to pass through the firewall.

The following article helped me figure out how to enable the system, but the relevant commands to run (in an elevated / Administrative Command Prompt or PowerShell window) are:

   netsh interface teredo show state

If "type" is set to "disabled", run:

   netsh interface teredo set state type=enterpriseclient

Following this, re-run the "teredo show state" command to verify that it is now enabled.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-networking/teredo-tunneling-adapter-is-missing/aeeae78c-13e8-4bf1-b82d-a0e492d47f50

Next, if applicable, run the following command to allow Teredo to run on an IPv6-enabled network interface (i.e. a network adapter that is assigned an IPv6 address).

   netsh int ipv6 set teredo client teredo.trex.fi

https://appuals.com/fix-xbox-app-server-blocked-connectivity-windows-10/

   2. The Xbox app didn't have the correct firewall exception set

This one I figured out on a whim. For some reason, my Xbox app has a firewall rule that allows it access to only domain connections (probably the result of my "system hardening" measures when I first installed Windows on this PC). I modified this to allow all inbound and outbound connections on all interfaces (i.e. Public and Private network interfaces).

   3. Windows Defender was blocking the Xbox app

The same "Server Connectivity Xbox App" link also suggested disabling third-party antimalware scanners, so I extended that logic to Microsoft during my testing. Because the download wouldn't start until both the Firewall and Scanner were disabled, I knew MS Defender was blocking the Xbox app, so I set a process exclusion for it.

%ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps\Microsoft.XboxApp_48.104.4001.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\XboxApp.exe

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-add-a-file-type-or-process-exclusion-to-windows-security-e524cbc2-3975-63c2-f9d1-7c2eb5331e53

As this file path seems to relate to the specific version of the app that is installed, you (the reader) will almost certainly need to screw around within the WindowsApps directory to find the correct file path for your Xbox app's executable.

While it took me at least 3 nights of work spread over the course of a week to figure out this issue, I am now able to install Starfield.

I'll never know if part of the issue revolved around the weird release schedule of Starfield (where the game was available for pre-installation on Xbox but PC users seemed unable to preinstall it), as I figured the issue out after the game's final release (for the Standard Edition) date.

As this issue involved integrating a bunch of troubleshooting steps from several forum posts, I thought that I should write this blog post to tie the steps together in case someone else runs into the same problem in the future.

Eventually, I'll repost this on a few other sites to spread its visibility. For now, feel free to comment if there's something that you'd like me to expand upon or clarify and I'll update this post as needed.

Addendum

While writing this, I came across the Gaming Services Repair Tool which may help some people.

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/games-apps/troubleshooting/gaming-services-repair-tool

Also, a screenshot showing the game actually launches (because the last screenshot doesn't technically show that it finished downloading):