Is Windows 8.1 Store Still Working

[Bridget Peral]

Soas you can see in the title, I really wanna have modern ui apps in windows 8.1 because I'm a windows 8 fan and im still running that version on my tablet.So for example like idk, maybe a modern ui/metro ui browser or apps generally.is there anyway to do that?or even like, maybe running desktop apps on the fullscreen mode?

To How to Download Microsoft Store Apps Without the Microsoft Store,you may try to use the Adguard store,but I don't know how useful it is. When working, it's supposed toprovide old versions of the Windows operating system,Microsoft Store apps, and more.

Deleting "C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\" from the system environment variable, PATH, prevented the Microsoft Store application from launching when I typed python.exe and python3.exe in a command prompt.

The folder WindowsApps within AppData has a bunch of executables that, if typed in a command prompt, such as iTunes or python would launch the Microsoft Store application allowing the user to download the Python or iTunes UWP application. Once this path is removed from the system variable, typing python.exe or python3.exe, will not launch the Microsoft Store.

This may sound dangerous but if you look in the folder, it has a bunch of exes that, as I said before that would redirect you to download Python from the Microsoft Store. If for example, you type in iTunes in the command prompt, it would redirect you to download iTunes from the Microsoft Store.

Turning the switch for each App execution alias either deletes or replaces that alias in the directory: \appdata\local\microsoft\windowsappsIt's also worth noting that if you have the update and python.exe or any of the aliases don't work for you, you may have to turn them off and on again, which I was able to do when python.exe was not available after the update.

While Python continues to remain completely independent from the operating system, every install of Windows will include python and python3 commands that take you directly to the Python store page. We believe that the Microsoft Store package is perfect for users starting out with Python, and given our experience with and participation in the Python community we are pleased to endorse it as the default choice.

I had Python 3 in my PATH before the 1903 update, and the 1903 update still added those two "rogue" python files in my WindowsApps folder. Even after removing that folder from my user PATH (it wasn't in my system PATH), and after rebooting, typing "python" in PowerShell opened the store. The WindowsApps folder was at the end of my PATH variable anyways, so it should not have overridden the working version, but it did. Get-Command python even returned the python.exe in WindowsApps.

The only way I could get it to run the version of Python I had working previously was to delete those python files from the WindowsApps folder; apparently PowerShell implicitly looks in that folder instead of using the PATH variable if those files are present.

I ran into this problem recently. With Visual Studio 2019 installed, I had already installed Python as a workload. I went to CMD and typed python. Up came the Microsoft Store. After wasting too much time looking more into this, it was obvious to me Microsoft Visual Studio team and Python team were not on the same page.

What I eventually ended up with was going back into Visual Studio installer and unchecking the Python workload to uninstall. Then, going into Windows Apps and uninstalling Python and any Python related applications listed.

After noticing that Python was installed on my 1TB NVMe SSD boot drive in the users directory I cringed. The path name was not friendly at all. Not only that, but because I have limited space on that drive and with all the Microsoft Store apps piling up, I dread to think what happens when the drive goes full.

So I decided, this was not good and chose to go to the Python website and download the current version. Then, install in a non-boot drive with plenty of disk space into a friendlier file path (D:\Python). You'll see why this is important when you go pip down a bunch of packages and applications...

Also, if you run into environment space problems, at the end of the Python installer is a question if you want to increase environment space. Say yes. Looking at my environment PATH, D:\Python\Python38\Scripts and D:\Python\Python38 were pre-appended.

What I'm trying to figure out is if it is possible to disable the Microsoft Store while still allowing apps like the calculator that are managed by it to be updated. I've figured out how to disable the store but it's the updates that are tripping me up. After a bit of research I've seen some options that required Windows 10 Enterprise and/or Azure (found here: -us/windows/configuration/stop-employees-from-using-microsoft-store), but we don't currently use those and would prefer to avoid the additional expense if possible. All PCs on the domain are Windows 10 Pro.

That makes sense that the Windows Store is necessary for the app updates. The main reason we wanted to disable it is so that users won't be able to use it to download apps for personal use. Maybe that can be accomplished in a different way?

Correct. If you have Enterprise or Education you can configure Group Policy to block the Store. If you block it in the USER policy, users will not be able to access the Store, but the computers will still have access to update apps. If you block it in the COMPUTER policy, the user nor the computer can access it and apps will not update.

This is useful information to update existing built-in apps between Windows 10 releases. We currently set Turn off Store application group policy under Computer Configuration. So if we set in group under User Configuration, will it update already provisioned UWP built-in apps (ex. Calculator) under existing user profiles? Also will it allow other UWP apps bundled with drivers (ex. Canon Office Printer Utility) to install in user profiles? Appreciate your help, just looking to see if you found any limitations. Also surprised it is not documented anywhere by Microsoft since it seems like a better workaround then using the Store for Business which is reportedly deprecated now. @Eddie Leonard

Assuming you devices can connect to the Store through your firewalls/proxies, then yes it should update your Inbox apps and other apps from the Store. As for other apps not installed from the Store, I don't believe it will, but I'm not 100% sure there.

@Tuomo_Koskimaki The question from the OP was is it possible to block the Store for users but still allow the apps to be updated. The correct way to achieve this is by blocking it in the User Policy. This allows the computer to update already installed Store apps while preventing users from installing new ones.

This policy is not designed to prevent them from using apps that are already installed. If you block the store from the computer policy any Store apps, including inbox apps will not be updated and will eventually cause those apps to potentially stop working.

Well, at our environment GPO:s do not function as desired. If Store is allowed at computer policy, it is also allowed for users. That is not desired result. Suitable setting was to set "Only display the private store within the Microsoft Store". Business store/Private store is not configured so, no access nor downloads for users. Computers still get updates from store. I tried applocker policy as well. I denied winstore app at Domain Users". It did not function either.

As part of a week of Windows Phone 8.x features and tutorials, and four years after Microsoft stopped official support for the OS (and 18 months after the on-device Store physically stopped working), what does still work in Windows Phone 8.1 and what's a no-go? If you pick up a classic Lumia 1020 or 920, for example, at a bargain price, how do you get things going in a meaningful way? tldr; Social networks are a no-go, email is hit and miss, cloud storage is very sketchy, but Office, sat-nav, music, weather, and original photography are all as good as ever. [NB: despite being a big update of an existing article, I've left all comments intact.]

But for the purposes of this feature I wanted to explore what happened with a factory reset (or newly acquired) Windows Phone 8.1 device. After all, you might see (in 2020) a classic Lumia 920 or 1020 for 30 on Gumtree or eBay and think 'I used to love this, I'll grab it to have a play'. And then you realise that Microsoft's support and Store timetables have left the phones with little way to bootstrap their way into 2021.

And when I type Python in CMD, it opens the Windows Store for me to download Python 3.7. This problem started today for no good reason. I didn't change or download anything about Python and already tried reinstalling Python, and the Path environment variable is correct.

Use the Windows search bar to find "Manage app execution aliases". There should be two aliases for Python. Unselect them, and this will allow the usual Python aliases "python" and "python3". See the image below.

I think we have this problem when installing Python because in a new Windows installation the aliases are in the ON position as in image below. When turned on, Windows puts an empty or fake file named python.exe and python3.exe in the directory named %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps. This is the alias.

When you enter "python" in cmd, it searches the directories listed in your "Path" environment variables page from top to bottom. So if you installed Python after a new Windows 10 install then get redirected to the Windows Store, it's because there are two python.exe's: The alias in the App Execution Alias page, and the real one wherever you installed Python. But cmd finds the App execution, alias python.exe, first because that directory is at the top of the Path.

The first time I ran into this problem, I manually deleted the python.exe and python3.exe files but when I restarted the files regenerated. That prompted me to search for the App Execution Aliases page and uncheck the box, which solved it for me, by not allowing the files to regenerate.

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