Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

"Not running as administrator"

Most groups need admin (services, registry, fonts, power plan). Use sudo on Windows 11, or the fallback launcher:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ".\setup.ps1"

To enable native sudo on Windows 11: Settings → System → For developers → Enable sudo. See docs/ADMIN-PRIVILEGES.md.

"running scripts is disabled on this system"

Execution policy is blocking the script. Run it with a bypass for the single session (does not change system settings):

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ".\setup.ps1"

winget is not recognized

Install App Installer from the Microsoft Store (Windows 10), or update it on Windows 11. winforge falls back to Chocolatey and then a custom URL if winget is unavailable, but winget is the primary path.

A program did not install

Re-run just that group and read the log lines:

sudo .\setup.ps1 -Group <group>

Then confirm detection with the validator (installs nothing):

.\tools\validate.ps1 -Group <group> -ShowDetails

If winget reports success but the app is missing, try Chocolatey manually (choco install <id>) or the vendor installer.

The Microsoft Store stopped updating / apps won't install

An old optimize run likely disabled StorSvc (the Store and app licensing depend on it). Current winforge never disables it. Fix:

Set-Service -Name StorSvc -StartupType Manual
Start-Service -Name StorSvc

Or run sudo .\setup.ps1 -Group restore.

Game Bar capture is greyed out

Caused by the policy AllowGameDVR=0. winforge does not set it, but restore clears it defensively:

Remove-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GameDVR" -Name AllowGameDVR -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Re-enable a service winforge disabled

Check the factory defaults in docs/SERVICES.md, then set it back:

Set-Service -Name SysMain -StartupType Automatic
Start-Service -Name SysMain

Or run restore, which fixes them all at once.

Re-running is safe

Detection is idempotent — installed programs are skipped and configuration blocks re-apply cleanly, so you can run setup.ps1 as many times as needed.

Undoing optimizations

Not everything is reversible via Windows Settings — HKLM policy keys and disabled services are not. Use the restore path:

.\setup.ps1 -Group restore -WhatIf   # preview
sudo .\setup.ps1 -Group restore      # apply

See Optimization Details and docs/RESTORE.md.