How to install Windows Store apps on Windows 8

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EpicNyles

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So you've just installed Windows 8.1 in hopes of installing Windows Store apps, you fail and you need help, and that's okay. Which is why I made this tutorial.

In this guide, I will teach you how to install Windows 8 Store apps in 2025.

Now there are many ways you can install Windows Store apps in 2025.

1) Install Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Enterprise.
2) Use Product Policy Editor.
3) Use WsServiceCrack (Windows 8.0 only)

I am not exactly sure how to use WSServiceCrack, so we will be focusing on points 1 and 2.

So you just installed Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Enterprise. Installing apps on this OS is easy, because it comes preinstalled with a developers license and all you need to do is enable a couple group policies.

1) Open gpedit.msc
2) Head to Computer Config. > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > App Package Development.
3) Enable all the policies in the folder.

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And then you need an app. The Microsoft store still has a bunch of Windows 8 apps. A way to decode and find the apps is by using "Microsoft Store - Generation Project (v1.2.3) [by @rgadguard & mkuba50]", And then find a link to a Windows 8

App. I will be using the app MyExplorer for this example.

So in the URL, theres a ProductID, or a Category ID, you'll know when you see it.

A ProductID Looks like this:

9wzdncrfj0lm (MyExplorer Product ID)

A Category ID, looks like this.

947f9272-9a7d-4311-88d8-6551fee8da9c (MyExplorer Category ID)

as you can see, the category has a couple dashes, and that is how you can determine a Category and Product ID.

And why must you know this? Because this is what the Adguard store asks for.

Pros of WE8.1IE:

Free Preinstalled Developers license until 9999 (literally)

Cons of WE8.1IE:

No preinstalled apps (excluding the Windows Store but that's irrelevant)

then install the appx file.
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How do I install Windows Store apps with Windows Product Policy editor?

Well for the first step you need Product Policy Editor

then you need to make sure you get the exe to the ZIP folder (extract the file noob)

Then you need to "Reboot With Setup Type=1"

Save your stuff and reboot your PC.

You will then come up (hopefully) with the product policy editor again, you do not have a mouse, so use the arrow keys, tab keys, page keys, and enter keys to navigate.

Page down until you get to the last three policies. Press enter on those, press 1, press enter. Once you did the last two policies, you need to press tab. Press tab until you highlight "Modify Registry"

Press tab keys untill you reach disable sppsvc. Press enter on it. you are good. press enter twice, and type exit, enter, your pc should then reboot.

Do the same few steps as above and you are cool and I have helped you.

(Enable group policies and find an appx file.)

Pros:

Windows Store apps installable

Cons:

No activation

No office

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In order to to get an appx file with a certificate, because I didn't mention this at all, but your appx needs a certificate. So to get a certificate, install 7zip, perferably 7zip but winrar and the others work too.

Once you have 7zip installed, hover 7zip and click extract files. then download this program called WSAppBak

listen, theres a lot of programs involved, but this is the best way i know how to do this ok.

and then with wsappbak, drag the folder you extracted into
(make sure to remove any quotation marks, these "" if there are any spaces in your folder path)

press enter, create an output folder, so perferably go to your desktop and create a folder there, then drag that into wsappbak
then press enter again, create a certificate, so click none when it pops up

**NOTE IF IT SAYS APPX CREATION FAILED TRY A DIFFERENT VERSION OF WSAPPBAK, NOT A CONFIRMED FIX JUST A POSSIBLE FIX I THINK*

then go to the folder you created on desktop, click on the second file sorted by name, and then click "install certificates"

click local machine, ok, accept UAC then click on "Place all certificates in the following store", click browse, then click the second option, "Trusted Root Certification Authorities"

Click next, then click ok, ok. Then go to powershell, type "add-appxpackage (Path to APPX File)" with dependency paths that are needed. Or if you use WSAppPkgIns then you drag the appx file to the program/open with WSAppPkgIns.exe and it will install like that.

All dependency paths that the app may need is on the appx archive within Archive.org, which you can find on google.

That's all, if I missed something, and I know I did, let me know and I will touch up on it.
Thanks for reading, and your welcome for this tutorial.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for this detailed tutorial, EpicNyles. I followed the steps to install apps from the Windows Store on Windows 8.1, but I'm encountering an issue during the certificate installation. I keep getting an 'APPX CREATION FAILED' error even after trying different versions of WSAppBak. Do you have any suggestions or alternative steps to fix this issue?
 
Thanks for this detailed tutorial, EpicNyles. I followed the steps to install apps from the Windows Store on Windows 8.1, but I'm encountering an issue during the certificate installation. I keep getting an 'APPX CREATION FAILED' error even after trying different versions of WSAppBak. Do you have any suggestions or alternative steps to fix this issue?
Hey Ludivine, I get that issue too sometimes, did you try a different folder, also what did you do to get this error?

Once you answer those two question I can help better.
Thank you for this question.
 
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