Xbox Game Pass is one of the best things we’ve seen in PC gaming industry in the last couple of years. It is a Netflix-like video game subscription service from Microsoft which lets you play dozens of games, ranging from the smallest indie titles to AAA blockbusters.
Unfortunately, the Xbox app which you have to install on your Windows PC in order to play Game Pass games is quite buggy. The app is still in beta version, and as such is much less polished compared to other clients and launchers such as Steam, Uplay, or EA Origin.
One of the most common problems with the Xbox app is a bug which makes you unable to launch your games. This means that when you try to start a game from the Xbox app nothing happens. Some users are also unable to download their games, and some of them even report receiving notification message with the text “Administrator Approval Required for Installation“. These users also report getting the 0x80073D26 error when trying to update or install Xbox Gaming Service via Microsoft Store app.
Encountering these errors may prove quite frustrating for many Game Pass users, especially if you bought the Xbox Game Pass monthly subscription and you are unable to play your games.
The main cause of this problem is the fact that the Xbox app is poorly coded, so when it tries to update the Gaming Services component, it doesn’t delete old registry keys referring to the previous version. This causes a version mismatch, and thus makes your Game Pass experience completely useless.
Luckily enough, there is a simple fix for all of these problems, but you’ll have to follow our steps carefully, as it involves changing some things in Windows Registry.
To fix this problem, follow these steps:
1. Press Start button on your taskbar and then type “Run”
2. Open the Run application, type “regedit”, and then press OK.
3. When regedit.exe opens up, find these two entries and delete them:
- [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\GamingServices]
- [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\GamingServicesNet]
4. Reboot your computer.
5. Wait a few minutes for Windows to automatically download and install the latest Xbox Gaming Services.
6. Enjoy in your Xbox Game Pass experience!
If you properly followed our instructions, your problem should be fixed now. This alone should resolve the issue, so there is no need to reinstall your Windows 10 operating system, fuddle with Windows Apps folder user permissions, delete folders, run PowerShell commands, or perform app resets.
Special thanks to user Kevin Andrews who found the solution to this problem. You can read his full guide here. We hope you found this guide useful. Enjoy in your Xbox Game Pass experience!
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