Once it comes to managing applications on Windows computers, get-appxpackage is one of the commands that come in handy from time to time. By making use of the appxpackage command in PowerShell, Windows users could see, remove and install applications. Usually, to take advantage of get-appxpackage, you only need to open PowerShell, type get-appxpackage and hit Enter. However, like other PowerShell commands, get-appxpackage could experience errors while running and get-appxpackage not recognized is one of those.

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What You Could Do

Run The Command With Administrator Privileges

In case you don’t know, get-appxpackage is a command that requires administrator privileges to run. That means if you use get-appxpackage using normal PowerShell, you won’t get what you want. 

• Step 1: Go to the Search bar and type Powershell.
• Step 2: Right-click the Powershell entry then select Run as administrator to open PowerShell with administrator privileges. 
• Step 3: Type get-appxpackage in the PowerShell (Admin) window and hit Enter.

Analyze The Permissions Of The Target Folder

All in all, the “get-appxpackage not recognized” error may appear if people lack Read and Write permissions over the destination directory. Hence, if you have trouble using the command to install apps, determine whether you have Read and Write permissions.

• Step 1: Press Windows + E to open File Explorer then navigate to the target folder.
• Step 2: Right-click the target folder, select Properties and go to Security tab.
• Step 3: Underneath Group or User Names, ensure that your SYSTEM account is visible and has full Read and Write permission. If SYSTEM account does not have permissions, click Advanced and assign it with the permissions.

Assess The Status Of The Appx Deployment Service

On Windows, Appx Deployment Service is the service that manages the running of commands. Keep getting the get-appxpackage not recognized error? Then it’s strongly recommended that you check out Appx Deployment Service.

Services

• Step 1: Press Windows + R to open Run, type Services.msc and hit Enter to open Services.
• Step 2: In Services, locate Appx Deployment Service (AppXSVC) and see if it is running. If the service is not running, right-click it and select Start to get it to run.
• Step 3: Close Services, open PowerShell and run the get-appxpackage command again.

Registry Editor

• Step 1: Press Windows + R to open Run, type Regedit and hit Enter.
• Step 2: In Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AppXSvc
• Step 3: In the Left pane, click AppXSvc Registry key.
• Step 4: In the Right pane, search for Start REG_DWORD and double-click it.
• Step 5: Set Value to 3 and click OK.