There's a growing number of complaints about a potential bug in the new Store in Windows 10 where users cannot turn on the ability for the Store to automatically update apps. I have multiple systems running Windows 10 and, sure enough, one of them is affected by this bug.
UPDATE
Even though the option continues to be grayed-out, Cumulative Update 1 did fix the issue where Windows Store apps were not auto-updating. However, you should be aware that those running Windows 10 Home edition will not be able to defer Windows app updates, just like for regular Windows updates.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
On the HP Spectre x360, you can see that the option to enable automatic app updates is grayed-out and gives a message that I should contact the system administrator for assistance.
It should be noted that updates for Windows Home edition cannot be turned off. That's part of the free deal - and that's a good thing. However, even though this option says it's turned on, the Windows Store is not automatically updating apps.
The interesting piece here is that I am an administrator of the system and the system is not domain-joined. Both are upgrades, not clean installs, however I've heard from others that this difference doesn't matter. The one key difference, I believe, is that the Surface Pro 3 is running Windows 10 Pro, while the HP Spectre x360 is running Windows Home.
This isn't a big issue, but is annoying. For those able to turn the option on, installed apps are updated automatically. For those of us that can't use the function, a manual check of available updates is required which also leads to having to manually initiate update installations.
One would think that fixing this would be easy enough using the Group Policy editor or the Windows 10 registry. However, the Group Policy editor is not included with Windows 10 Home, and good luck locating the options in the registry. One suggestion posed was to use the Windows Store apps troubleshooter, but the process was halted by a message that "this troubleshooter doesn't work with this version of Windows."
Since my discovery of this bug, several others have reported the same issue. Is this issue plaguing you?
I've submitted a bug report in the Windows 10 Feedback app, which you should locate and upvote the item if you're also experiencing this problem. Additionally, a thread in the forums has been created if you'd like to voice your concerns there: Store Apps Auto update greyed out.
The forum's first responder said that "we can't duplicate this issue, sorry" so if you're experiencing the issue, make sure to join the throng so it gets the proper attention it needs.
