Fix 0x80073D23: Deployment Blocked Because Special Profile Deployment Is Not Allowed

You run a PowerShell command such as Add-AppxPackage, or re-register the Microsoft Store apps, and Windows answers: Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073D23, The deployment operation was blocked because special profile deployment is not allowed. Nothing is wrong with the package. Windows has a policy that blocks app deployment in profiles that won't be kept, and you're currently signed in to one of them.

What Counts as a Special Profile

Microsoft defines special profiles as user profiles whose changes are discarded when the user signs off:

• Roaming profiles where the Delete cached copies of roaming profiles policy applies.
• Mandatory and super-mandatory profiles created by an administrator.
• Temporary profiles, created when an error stops your real profile from loading.
• Profiles for the Guest account and members of the Guests group.

By default, Windows blocks adding, registering, staging, updating or removing packaged Microsoft Store apps in these profiles, and reports 0x80073D23.

Check Whether You're on a Temporary Profile

A temporary profile lives under C:\Users\TEMP (or similar), and anything you save is lost at sign-off. Check the profile path of the current session.

# Which profile folder is this session using?
$env:USERPROFILE

# A path like C:\Users\TEMP means a temporary profile

Fix 1: Sign In With Your Normal Profile

The cleanest fix is to stop using the special profile. For a temporary profile, restart first: a one-off load failure often clears. If it keeps happening, the user profile needs repairing (typically by an administrator checking the profile's entry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList, or creating a new user profile and moving files across). For Guest, use a standard account.

Fix 2: Allow Deployment in Special Profiles (Group Policy)

When special profiles are intentional, such as lab or kiosk machines with mandatory profiles, an administrator can allow packaged-app deployment. The policy is available on Pro, Enterprise and Education editions.

In the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc): Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > App Package Deployment > Allow deployment operations in special profiles > Enabled. Then run gpupdate /force.

The policy writes this registry value, which you can also set directly from an elevated prompt:

# Run as Administrator
New-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Appx' -Force | Out-Null
Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Appx' `
  -Name 'AllowDeploymentInSpecialProfiles' -Value 1 -Type DWord

gpupdate /force