Microsoft Store

Blocking the Microsoft Store Web Installer using Entra Internet Access

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This week is all about addressing a really specific scenario and that scenario is related to the Microsoft Store. Many organizations are preventing access to the Microsoft Store app by using the policy setting Turn off the Store application. That policy setting, however, does literally what the name implies, it turns off the Store application. That does not prevent users from navigating to apps.microsoft.com, downloading an app and installing it directly. In the early days that download option did not exist, meaning that this scenario did not exist. That all changed with the Microsoft Store Web Installer. The Microsoft Store Web Installer is a standalone installer for Store apps that helps with downloading and installing apps from apps.microsoft.com. It basically creates a stub .exe-based installer …

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Easily removing access to the Microsoft Store

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This week is all about access to the Microsoft Store. And more specifically, about a single policy setting to potentially turn of access to the Microsoft Store. Many organizations struggle with the Microsoft Store on Windows devices, because the Microsoft Store enables users to install apps in their profile that aren’t necessarily work related. That brings organization on a crossroad. When an organization decides to block access to the Microsoft Store, there were already different options available. So far, the most effective methods were to either configure Windows to show the private store only, or to use AppLocker. None of those methods, however, would be complete and simple. Often it was still possible to use winget to still install apps, or the configuration would get …

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