Unable to activate Windows Store app (Visual Studio 2015, Windows 10 Version 1511)

Question

Today I updated my Windows 10 PC to Threshold 2. The update went fine apart from Visual Studio refusing to run any of my Universal Windows 10 projects (including new ones).

When I try run an app I get this message:

Unable to activate Windows Store app '{App}'. The {App name}.exe
process started, but the activation request failed with error 'The app
didn't start'.

I have tried everything:

• Repairing / Uninstalling then Installing Visual Studio
• Cleaned the Solution
• Deleted the 'bin' and 'obj' folders
• Checked for SDK/Visual Studio updates
• Checked if there was an app.json (there wasn't)
• Updated Nuget Packages
• Tried different projects (including new blank ones - same errors)
• Resetting Windows (from settings screen)

Extra Info

• Visual Studio is installed on a second (storage) drive, as my main drive is a small SSD.
• Everything worked fine before I upgraded.

Antalkali

@domic change Platform Target under Properties -> Build to ARM instead of x86 – Laural

@domic where are your project located ? – Herdsman

@Herdsman I actually figured that out just before, apparently the project must be on the C:/ drive (even though it was working before, but I wont question it) – Antalkali

Answer 1

Turns out that my Visual Studio projects must be on my C:/ drive and not a storage drive. All fixed.

Antalkali

OMG I could not believe to be in 2016 and still having these kind of restrictions. I was using the UWP examples of GitHub in D: without any changes (almost no space on C:) and for all the examples I was getting this activation failure for all of them. As this answer suggests I moved to C: and now it's working.... What is Microsoft thinking???? I am surprised !!! This is a mega bug for me. – Shalom

Answer 2

I managed to fix the problem by checking the box "Compile with .NET Native tool chain" under project's "Properties --> Build" -tab.

similarly in official troubleshooting page this Native and cleanup tips are mentioned

Nancienancy

It is helped for me. – Vermiform

This fixed the problem thank you! I then unchecked it without issues. – Marchal

just note that it is not a permanent solution and may behaves differently. it is better to revert back the emulator to older 14393 SDK and emulator version and downgrade creators update or any other version in your case – Overtax

Answer 3

Since correct answer does not work for me, I found another bad solution: change your package name for debugging purposes.

Important: you should stop debugging via stop button, not via App`s close button.

Madalene