My confusing, 10-day journey to getting a UWP game to work on Windows 10
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You know the old saying, if everyone you run into can't use the windows store, you're the asshole?
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On my machine, UWP refuses to work through a VPN. For instance, IE works without issue, while Edge passively aggressively suggests I make sure I got the right web address (or search for bing.com on Bing). Since I only use internet through a VPN — as a matter of basic hygiene — I am spared any interaction with UWP.
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This is absurd. It's almost like it isn't your computer anymore. How dare you look at files on your own hard drive: you aren't licensed to view these files. Apparently when you install Windows 10 you turn your computer over to Microsoft.
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"Works for me" is never a good argument given the diversity of the PC ecosystem. With UWP, Microsoft had the opportunity to build a more reliable and robust platform from scratch. Yet people are still having all sorts of issues with it. At this point, the chances I'll be buying a UWP game are about as good as me buying a GFWL one.
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I can actually run it just fine, and so can most of the people I know, but he's still wrong. Failures are going to happen, and they're especially going to happen with big complex applications like games. That makes it really important for those failures to be easy to understand and easy to troubleshoot and fix. UWP's failures are neither of those things, so when the platform or an application in it fails you're pretty much stuck.
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I always thought that VLC should have the slogan "It plays for sure".
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As I remember it, programs originally had error codes because it was easier on memory rather than having long informational strings (because memory was expensive and early computers didn't have a lot). These days, though, that's not much of a concern.
However, when reading something about Microsoft's ridiculous error numbers for SQL, it was put forth that it was an anti-hacking measure. Like, if someone was trying to hack into the system they wouldn't know what to do when confronted with a long error number. Because... hackers can't look up an error number on Google. Which is what I did to try and figure out what the number was supposed to be telling me.
Anyways, in a day when 16GB of memory is becoming the standard, companies can afford to put a bit more explanation into their error messages.
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Because MS is still under the delusional it can pivot into a 2007 version of Apple. It drools at the thought of a closed ecosystem where MS can reap mega profits with a walled garden and that people will flock to MS for high profit margin devices. It's just ridiculous.
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Actually, one would have to commend Microsoft for providing a consistently bad experience each and every time they tried to do something with PC gaming since the Xbox. Too bad DirectX updates are so uneventful!
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Frankly, that sounds a lot like what Windows Me and 8 were. Thankfully, valve finally started doing some good with gaming on linux, so good riddance.
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It's a play on the original joke.
"If everyone you meet is an ass, you're the ass".
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It's not really that closed, though. You can install UWP apps from outside of the store so long as they're signed, and you can install unsigned apps if you change the OS setting preventing it (please don't).
That means that UWP apps could, in principle, be distributed pretty well anywhere and by anyone... but in practice, there's no real point.
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There is a very good reason Most. Win10. Exclusive. games have escaped the app store platform as soon as they were out of their exclusivity deals with Microsoft. At least, the one's that didn't end up in a precarious situation, have to bail out for an attempt to survive, and then ultimately died off....
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Yeah, I wonder how much of this is the age old problem of third party apps hooking Windows functions and not quite getting the behaviour correct. It would explain why killing Afterburner and then launching it afterwards might work, the app has already got the u booked version of functions and this bypasses whatever issue causes the crash.
Of course the why rarely matters, it makes UWP apps look bad and that puts people off. Despite owning a lot of digital download xbone games i don't think I have ever bothered trying the Windows store version on PC, simply because i hear too many stories of the problems associated with it.
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Killer Instinct didn't end up on Steam because it escaped an exclusivity deal. It ended up on Steam because Microsoft put it there.
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I'm pretty sure all software is digital. Where would I possibly go to get analog software to run on Windows?
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"Doesn't work for me" is just as bad.
To be clear, I have had problems installing things from the Windows Store before. They were all solved by running wsreset.exe. But the benefits have far outweighed the issues. Having a single software repository that remembers what I purchase, downloads things in a single click, keeps everything up to date automatically, uninstalls everything cleanly, built directly into the OS is absolutely beneficial.
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That's funny, it doesn't launch any faster or slower for me. I still use the Store version though because Apple can't shit up my system with third party services and do who the fuck knows what to the registry via the Store app.
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Plus instead of 81 devices in Windows 8.1 using the Windows Store it is 10. Saves a lot of agony in that I never ever use the Windows Store. Windows 7 and 8.1 are solid as a rock! Windows 10 is shaky either updates fail to apply or the update screws things up.
The bugs range from major to just bizarre. On my system you can select the last character of a text string in a PDF document.
Documentation is non-existent. Nothing seems to be tested.
It does seem that Edge at least on Microsoft websites works well. However all my stuff is Google based and becoming more so due to my Android device population.
Google even produced a pack that takes over Windows from Microsoft and conveniently downloads their office suite, in addition to do cloud saves and Google drive integration.
The bugs range from major to just bizarre. On my system you can select the last character of a text string in a PDF document.
Documentation is non-existent. Nothing seems to be tested.
It does seem that Edge at least on Microsoft websites works well. However all my stuff is Google based and becoming more so due to my Android device population.
Google even produced a pack that takes over Windows from Microsoft and conveniently downloads their office suite, in addition to do cloud saves and Google drive integration.
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UWP seemed like a beacon of light to anyone who has to make desktop "enterprise" apps. Background updates like a phone? Sign me up!
Unfortunately with all of the development restrictions, it's like a haunted house full of locked doors and rusty, sharp edges. I can't even fathom the pain involved in trying to make a full-featured game in it.
Unfortunately with all of the development restrictions, it's like a haunted house full of locked doors and rusty, sharp edges. I can't even fathom the pain involved in trying to make a full-featured game in it.
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No, it definitely isn't. Developers, and especially developers making application platforms, have a strong responsibility to ensure that "works for me" is as universal for their product as possible. "Doesn't work for me", and especially "doesn't work for me and it took me a week to figure out why", generally indicates a failure on the part of the developer.
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Man, I've spent *hours* wsresetting and running all sorts of powershell scripts to try & fix windows store apps. I ended up having to do a complete wipe and reinstall to get set straight. Even an over-the-top "upgrade" installation of Windows didn't fix my problems.
This pain is why I haven't bought FH4, at least yet.
This pain is why I haven't bought FH4, at least yet.
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Or you know, those of us with stuck with rural DSL where re-downloading 15gb+ could take nearly half a day... Downloading that also sucks up the bandwidth for the entire house so no streaming netflix or watching videos during that time. I haven't purchased a UWP game because I can't simply download it from work where we have fiber and transfer it to my home computer like I can with ANY other platform. Transferring a game from one computer to the next is simply a requirement for me.btw, the constant suggestions by the official Microsoft reps to “just redownload the (multi-gigabyte) software and try it again”, causing untold amounts of worthless data usage, are both idiotic and insulting.
Sure, no problem, it’s not like i have capped internet or anything
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I have a feeling that this wasn't meant to be a power play from Microsoft, but rather one of those situations where they say "Well, we want to distribute our games on Windows too", and someone chimes in, "We've got the Windows Store?" Initially, that may have sounded like a great idea to reuse an existing infrastructure, but the Windows Store was designed for small apps that likely didn't need any sort of user tinkering... which also likely helped with some piracy. That just doesn't fit what some PC users are expecting of their games (mods, etc.).
So, my guess is that this was likely Microsoft trying to fit the square peg into the round hole.
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Not sure if it’s related but I had a similar bullshit experience last night trying to download and install FH4.
Tried to download the first time and somehow my PC locked up hard around 58GB downloaded. Had to hold the power button to restart the PC.
Then after reboot MS Store tried to download the rest. And it looked like it did... except trying to launch the game resulted in the little splash screen in a window disappearing after a few seconds with no errors. After trying to launch a couple more times, I figured the game was corrupted.
So I uninstalled, and redowloaded the thing. Then... hard lock up again around 58GB. It was clear at this point that this wasn’t a coincidence. I shut off the PC by holding power. Restart the sucker. I check to make sure my SSD still had enough storage... 80GB left, should be enough for the advertised 62GB download.
The download resumes. Game doesn’t launch. Corrupt again? Probably.
I madly start deleting older games to make a lot of room on the SSD. And start the download again last night before going to bed.
Next morning, everything looks installed. PC didn’t freeze up overnight. Looks promising. Launch game. Looks like it’s loading, but then window disappears. Holy fack!!!! I reboot the PC, and bam, the game loads. But the had to leave for work.
So who knows... maybe my troubles are over with Forza Horizon 4. Maybe not. I’ll find out tonight.
The FH4 demo was the opposite... it downloaded, installed and loaded correctly on the first try.
Tried to download the first time and somehow my PC locked up hard around 58GB downloaded. Had to hold the power button to restart the PC.
Then after reboot MS Store tried to download the rest. And it looked like it did... except trying to launch the game resulted in the little splash screen in a window disappearing after a few seconds with no errors. After trying to launch a couple more times, I figured the game was corrupted.
So I uninstalled, and redowloaded the thing. Then... hard lock up again around 58GB. It was clear at this point that this wasn’t a coincidence. I shut off the PC by holding power. Restart the sucker. I check to make sure my SSD still had enough storage... 80GB left, should be enough for the advertised 62GB download.
The download resumes. Game doesn’t launch. Corrupt again? Probably.
I madly start deleting older games to make a lot of room on the SSD. And start the download again last night before going to bed.
Next morning, everything looks installed. PC didn’t freeze up overnight. Looks promising. Launch game. Looks like it’s loading, but then window disappears. Holy fack!!!! I reboot the PC, and bam, the game loads. But the had to leave for work.
So who knows... maybe my troubles are over with Forza Horizon 4. Maybe not. I’ll find out tonight.
The FH4 demo was the opposite... it downloaded, installed and loaded correctly on the first try.
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I've tried exactly two UWP games, the free Forza Motorsport companion game, and the only one I spent money on was Killer Instinct. Both were similar horror stories and I've since sworn off UWP until the end of time. Pure garbage.
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It is as a matter of fact. It's how I found out that the Plex store app was caching tens of gigabytes of images for some ungodly reason. I don't feel like looking back but whoever on Page 1 of these comments that mentioned you can access the store app locations but their folder names are just a hash number is correct. Games might be a different beast due to DRM or something but you can definitely just access the files where regular apps are stored.
Had to do it again to fix Filebot which was screwing up for some reason as something was wrong with its database or something (can't remember the exact error) and I ended up having to find its install location and deleting an entire directory. Caused it to reset and it's worked ever since.
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Yeah uwp games bugs are super annoying to trouble shoot due to limited transparency and access
Last time I bought uwp game was halo strategy game I think. It simply doesn't work.
Keeps not responding after login.
Solution? Use the pirated version. Dunno how the legality in the US. In Indonesia it's legal, as copyright infringement need me to damage the copyright holder. But I already bought it, so what.
Although to be fair, long ago origin and steam also crashy, buggy, and generally annoying too.
Heck, steam offline mode only been working consistently for these last few years. I even have double-install (legit steam version and pirate version) for games that I play a lot like left 4 dead 2 and portal 2, and for apps for work.
Last time I bought uwp game was halo strategy game I think. It simply doesn't work.
Keeps not responding after login.
Solution? Use the pirated version. Dunno how the legality in the US. In Indonesia it's legal, as copyright infringement need me to damage the copyright holder. But I already bought it, so what.
Although to be fair, long ago origin and steam also crashy, buggy, and generally annoying too.
Heck, steam offline mode only been working consistently for these last few years. I even have double-install (legit steam version and pirate version) for games that I play a lot like left 4 dead 2 and portal 2, and for apps for work.
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It's not necessarily UWP that is the problem but more the Windows Store and it's systems which has very little tolerance for failure.
If there is anything slightly wrong with your Windows profile data the Store will trip up and cause all sorts of problems.
One time I couldn't sign into Xbox app or games on Windows, the reason being the saved data from a previous profile that I had copied over onto the PC was not compatible with the version installed. Only a clean install of Windows could get it back up and running, the mere fact of copying over user data tripped it up.
P.S. Resetera are social extremists avoid linking to those nut jobs.
If there is anything slightly wrong with your Windows profile data the Store will trip up and cause all sorts of problems.
One time I couldn't sign into Xbox app or games on Windows, the reason being the saved data from a previous profile that I had copied over onto the PC was not compatible with the version installed. Only a clean install of Windows could get it back up and running, the mere fact of copying over user data tripped it up.
P.S. Resetera are social extremists avoid linking to those nut jobs.
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Makes you wonder IF all that telemetry is actually for "troubleshooting".
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This is the exact same problem I've had with Forza Horizon 3- instant crash on launch with no error message. The workaround fix there was to install another app from the Windows store- any app, as long as it was not already registered to my Windows store account. That would fix the problem....temporarily. This would lead me to believe authentication issues are a factor.
In any case, UWP is hot garbage. It doesn't matter how many features you have if the end product doesn't work reliably.
In any case, UWP is hot garbage. It doesn't matter how many features you have if the end product doesn't work reliably.
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At the very least they should have shown an error message, even something as vague as "unsupported application was detected, exiting forza horizon 4" would be nice
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Bungie did it much better.
They use easy to read error code (weasel, baboon, etc) and provide short solution (try again later, etc) under the error message.
The more complete explanation and solution available in their website.
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Anecdotal, but I've not had these kinds of issues even once, and I own nearly every first-party XBLPA title. My guess is there is something broken in your Windows 10 installation generally or with your user profile, and it may be time for a reset.
Microsoft absolutely needs to make the Store and UWP games more reliable, but gamers do end up installing (oftentimes unaware) lots of random third-party system software (Afterburner, game overlays, anti-cheat utilities, game streaming features, etc.) that can muck with each other and with the OS. Few gamers ever call out these other software providers of course; it's always Microsoft's fault.
Microsoft absolutely needs to make the Store and UWP games more reliable, but gamers do end up installing (oftentimes unaware) lots of random third-party system software (Afterburner, game overlays, anti-cheat utilities, game streaming features, etc.) that can muck with each other and with the OS. Few gamers ever call out these other software providers of course; it's always Microsoft's fault.
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