For the 3rd time this year, I cannot open minecraft, it instead it opens gaming services...

Hi and thanks for reaching Microsoft Xbox gamer's community.
My name is Josef.
I'm an Independent Advisor and a regular Microsoft Xbox user like you.

Hope you're doing great today despite this LEOSHAFAI

Sorry to hear that you're having issues with minecraft.
Please answer the following questions to assist you properly :
Is this happening as soon as you open the launcher or when you try to play bedrock edition?
Are you on windows 10 or 11?
Did you receive an update recently for your windows system?
And what did you tried so far to fix this problem?
In that way I can advise you different things or how to proceed

In the meantime, double check if everything is up to date:
Open Settings, click Update and Security and then Windows Update;

Click Check for Updates;

Click the Download and Install Now option, if available (Install optional updates as well)

Also, check the Microsoft Store for any updates on the Xbox apps and its services and update everything too.

If everything looks good, and in case you didn't tried it, reinstall Gaming Services using powershell command

Press Windows key + X and then select Windows PowerShell (Admin).

Type or copy / past the following command and press Enter:

Get-AppxPackage *gamingservices* -allusers | remove-appxpackage -allusers

Restart the PC and Open the Xbox application.

A blue notification with the following message is going to appear at the bottom:
"This app needs an extra component. Gaming Services is needed for playing some games. Administrator approval required. Install"

Select Install to reinstall Gaming Services, once installed check again

So Minecraft runs just fine, but trying to open the launcher while Minecraft is already working no longer works, and instead redirects me to the open Minecraft process. I have already reinstalled my graphics card drivers, reinstalled Minecraft, and reset and repaired the Gaming Services application.

No 3rd-party antivirus software. Followed that guide and with a clean boot and no 3rd party services Xbox Game Bar would still not open. Still unable to open the application.

Hey there, thanks for the answer. Unfortunately, none of these attempts resolved my issue yet.

A. I couldn't run the game repair services as this requires opening the XBOX App, I cannot open the XBOX App

B. I opened the Services window and did find that some of the listed services were on manual instead of automatic, I fixed that, started them and restarted the PC, but nothing changed.

C. Trying to open the XBOX App as a new local user resulted in the exact same issue

D. I ran the SFC tool a few times and it didn't report any corruptions.

WTAF. I've just re-opened the page for the 3rd time and now it shows I own it. BUT turns out I've bought the XBox version instead of the Windows version. Why are they even different?