Like Apple, Microsoft has also introduced its own Windows Store in Windows 8 for installing applications specific to Windows 8 . On Mac OS, there are many different kinds of apps available but at this stage, the Windows Store cannot compete with Apple’s App Store. Its too early to compare both these app stores. The problem is that anyone with access to your computer can easily download and install apps from this store. A solution to this problem is to disable Windows Store in Windows 8.
This would be useful especially for those who are using Windows 8 in a corporate environment. Administrators and system admins won’t want their office workers to install apps without their knowledge. Whatever the reason may be, let’s learn how to temporarily disable Windows Store for all users in your PC.
How to Prevent Access to Windows Store in Windows 8
Before proceeding, make sure that you are logged in as Administrator or you have required privileges to do this task. Press the Windows + R key to open the Run box. Type gpedit.msc and hit Enter.
This should open Local Group Policy Editor.
Navigate to this location:
User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components
Select the Store folder. From the right-side double-click on Turn Off the Store application. This should bring up a dialog box for editing this policy.
At the top, you can see three settings – Not Configured, Enabled and Disabled. Select “Enabled” and then click on OK button. You can also read help from the Help section. The Enabled setting states that “If you enable this setting, access to the Store application is denied” and this is exactly what we are trying to achieve here.
Next, we need to enforce this policy. To do this, press the Windows + R key to open Run box. Type the following command and press Enter.
gpupdate /force
Once this is done, Local Group Policy will be updated. Next time if anyone tries to access Windows Store, they will get this message that states that “Windows Store isn’t available on this PC”.
If in future you want to enable Windows Store again, then just select “Disabled”. This will allow users to access Windows Store again.
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