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m76

The Windows/Microsoft Store is still useless

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I don't know how can MS get away with such a shoddy and useless storefront. I just subscribed to xbox games pass for $1 and I'm already regretting it.

It's definitely more trouble than it's worth. I mean it's one thing that it doesn't let you decide which directory it installs games. And it doesn't support any level of modding. For all intents and purposes it's a walled garden inside your own PC. But I just wanted to download the Halo Master Chief collection, and for that it doesn't even ask what drive to install it on. So it just started downloading to the system drive, it overfilled the drive, which caused my work that was in progress to fail. Ridiculous. I can't believe they are not making it crappy on purpose. Because nobody can be this incompetent for this long.

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11 minutes ago, m76 said:

I don't know how can MS get away with such a shoddy and useless storefront. I just subscribed to xbox games pass for $1 and I'm already regretting it.

It's definitely more trouble than it's worth. I mean it's one thing that it doesn't let you decide which directory it installs games. And it doesn't support any level of modding. For all intents and purposes it's a walled garden inside your own PC. But I just wanted to download the Halo Master Chief collection, and for that it doesn't even ask what drive to install it on. So it just started downloading to the system drive, it overfilled the drive, which caused my work that was in progress to fail. Ridiculous. I can't believe they are not making it crappy on purpose. Because nobody can be this incompetent for this long.

 

I think you need to check your app settings or something.  I remember it being like what you said at first, but that feature at least was patched in ages ago.  This is what comes up on the screen when I try to install one of mine:

 

image.thumb.png.9923399b90a5c321663bf21364107623.png

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Nope,  the selection  comes up for other titles, but not for this one.

They can't even figure their shit out, because this game was installed in the program files folder instead of the usual crap hidden folder in the root.

Edited by m76
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9 hours ago, m76 said:

Nope,  the selection  comes up for other titles, but not for this one.

They can't even figure their shit out, because this game was installed in the program files folder instead of the usual crap hidden folder in the root.

 

I think I have an explanation.  The Windows Store version HALO MCC, being a game that came on Windows quite a while ago, is classed as a UWP (Universal Windows Platform) app rather than the traditional Win32.  UWP apps can only be installed in Windows system protected folders.  This idea came from around the Windows 8 era when Microsoft were complete and utter tools that seemed to think they were designing an OS for a fucking tablet.  it's a large part of what made Windows 8 and the early iterations of the Microsoft store such a pain in the ass.

 

Thankfully it seems like Microsoft has mostly abandoned UWP in favor of Win 32 on the store but still affects some older apps and games.  What you will have to do for MCC is what we all had to do to set your default install location on another drive.

 

First (if you haven’t already) go to Settings - Apps and select HALO MCC,  then uninstall.  Simply deleting the files won't be enough since the Store will just simply try to download and re-install at the same location again.  Now go to Settings - System - Storage then scroll down to "Change where content is saved" then change the dive under "New apps will be saved to" to another drive.  Now install HALO MCC again and it should download on the drive you have chosen.

Edited by Crazycrab
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I've had a similar issue with ReCore. Bought the game, it downloaded, and now I literally can't find it. The game works perfectly fine through the shorcut on the start menu and via the Microsoft Store app, but I would still like to know where it's installed if that's OK with you Microsoft. I also didn't get a prompt asking what drive to install the game on, but in my case I bought the game through my phone and activated installation remotely, so It could be the same problem @m76had or it's just issues or limitations with the phone app. Even so, I would still expect to be able to find the game on my system.

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24 minutes ago, Shagger said:

I've had a similar issue with ReCore. Bought the game, it downloaded, and now I literally can't find it. The game works perfectly fine through the shorcut on the start menu and via the Microsoft Store app, but I would still like to know where it's installed if that's OK with you Microsoft. I also didn't get a prompt asking what drive to install the game on, but in my case I bought the game through my phone and activated installation remotely, so It could be the same problem @m76had or it's just issues or limitations with the phone app. Even so, I would still expect to be able to find the game on my system.

 

Well I can confirm that the Windows Store version of ReCore is UWP, just like Halo MCC.  The install files are buried inside a hidden folder in the root directory.

 

The more I look into this the more I'm starting to realise what a huge fuck up this really was.  Steam does not support UWP so their versions are Win32.  Not only does this mean that they bypass all these annoying restrictions, but it turns out it also means that are more universally compatible with later versions of DirectX so they often perform better.

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i don't think Halo MCC is UWP, as it installs under the program files folder, not inside the hidden folder in the root directory. Anyway, I couldn't even play it, because when the download finished I started the master chief collection, but wanting to run halo reach it said it's not installed, despite the windows store showing it as installed.

then I uninstalled the entire crap, at least that worked. Tried downloading it again but it only got to like 17% in 3 hours. And it's not my internet connnection, that's fast. It's this utter garbage they call a store. Best case scenario it downloads 10-15MB/s but yesterday it was sub 1MB the whole time.

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On 9/13/2020 at 4:28 AM, m76 said:

In the end, I Never even played the game, uninstalled everything, cancelled my game pass subscription. I'm done with the MS store.

To be honest, I've never really used the Microsoft Store for anything really just because of how problematic it can be just to buy some stuff.

On 12/14/2020 at 4:25 AM, skyfire said:

Considering microsoft never made it manadatory to use their store. I never bothered and will never bother as well. I will just use the manual installs. 

Or buy the game from another party like Steam or GOG - I definitely don't buy anything on their platforms.

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Despite all the hate the MS Store gets, I really hope it does well. An easy way for people who aren't as good with technology to download apps is nice way to go about with, but most importantly I think Steam and also Epic desperately needs a competitor, as they've become so big they've stopped trying to quality control their store and refuse to update their clients at times, even that they are working hard.

Personally for me that I don't use the MS store, yes in the pass for games that you can't get elsewhere however games like seas of thieves are now available on steam.   

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