As you likely have found the Group Policy to disable the store (see below) only works with Windows 8 Pro and Enterprise , and Windows 10 Enterprise and Education. This means it does NOT work on Windows 10 Pro, which is super annoying.
USER CONFIGURATION > ADMINISTRATIVE TEMPLATES > WINDOWS COMPONENTS > STORE > TURN OFF THE STORE APPLICATION
The insane suggestion I had received from Microsoft Partner Support a few months ago was to “simply” delete the STORE application files from every profile on every PC and then hope that Microsoft does not update the STORE in the future, which would reinstall it under a slightly different path.
After MANY hours of banging on this problem I found a simple GPO to will stop the STORE. Software Restriction Policies has worked well:
COMPUTER CONFIGURATION > POLICIES > WINDOWS SETTINGS > SECRURITY SETTINGS > SOFTWARE RESTRICTION POLICIES >
At this point you will likely have to right click and select NEW or CREATE to populate this GPO.
> ADDITIONAL RULES > right click and create a rule that disallows %programfiles%\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsStore*
It is VERY important to use the ‘*’ wildcard in this path because Microsoft will change the path as they update the STORE application over the coming years.
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isn't working for me - I know, old thread... anybody have another solution or have an idea why it might not work?
Windows 10 Pro 1709
Thank you!! Nice work!
Thanks heaps Mate! I know it's an old post but wanted to let you know that this works perfectly fine on Windows 10 Pro v1709 as well. This just disables the Windows Store app but let's you run the already installed Trusted Store apps like Calculator, Photo, Mail, Calendar, etc.
I've been unable to get it to work in mine.
is there something I'm missing?
Worked great! Fantastic find and nice work!
Hey Ian,
Sent you an email about this but has this been causing the calculator / and store to be removed as well? I've been seeing this in my tests.
Thanks!
Worked like a champ on a Win 10 Pro in my educational environment.
Thanks, but I tried this and it won't work on the rest of the users. Any idea?
Hi Saul; This should apply to all users assuming the policy is applied to them or the machine. Did you make sure the wildcard "*" is at the end of %programfiles%\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsStore* ?
Is there a way to do this if you are not connected to a corporate network but still use 10 Pro? I don't even have the option to create policies under the Computer Configuration tab.
Hi Jordan; If you are small enough to not be on a corporate network, you can just remove the Store application. The process would be the same as how to remove EDGE or CORTANA, which you can see http://www.urtech.ca/2016/08/solved-video-hard-reset-microsoft-edge-browser-windows-10-remove-edge-completely/
I hope this helps :)
Does this still work? I attempted as a user policy and the store still seems to work. I am running 10 Pro v 1607.
Thanks
I have not tried it on 1607 but I would be a bit surprised if it does not work
can this be reverted back?
Definitely. Just remove or disable the GPO.