Alt App Installer – The Microsoft Store Alternative

Home
/
How To
/
Alt App Installer – The Microsoft Store Alternative

by Chris (vile_is_dead)

Last update 11 Feb 2024

XbitLabs participates in several affiliate programs. If you click links on our website and make a purchase, we may earn a commision. Learn More

It is quite common to find that on custom Windows installations the Microsoft Store is missing/stripped from the install. This is done to get rid of all the annoying apps and bundles that come on a normal install, but it also leaves you scratching your head when you do need some simple app only available on the Microsoft Store.

The Alternative Solution

In my case, I often found that the custom installation lacked the basic Calculator app or the Photos app leading to an annoying hunt for an alternative app on the web. This can be completely avoided now with the use of the Alt App Installer.

As the name implies this utility allows you to download and install apps from the Microsoft Store without actually having it on your PC. Download the app, extract it somewhere easily accessible, and launch the utility.

From that point on things are self-explanatory: Click the Choose App button, browse the Microsoft Store for the app that you want to install, and press the Select button on the top bar when you find what you need.

You can also install a Microsoft Store app by using a link or having an app package already on your machine making the process as simple as possible.

Limitations

The biggest issue I have encountered with this app and the situation of installing Microsoft apps onto a custom Windows is that in a lot of cases, the version of the app is not compatible with older builds. I have tried installing a couple of apps from the Microsoft Store but it would always error out because of missing dependencies a.k.a I am missing files that are needed for the app to run properly.

A way to circumvent this situation would be using the https://store.rg-adguard.net/ site to find older versions of apps that might run on your install. I have tried some older Microsoft apps this way but in most cases, my Windows install seems to be too old/stripped for them to install properly.

With enough luck and checking the error log however you can find some apps that will install meaning the utility does work properly!

TL;DR

If you have no access to the Microsoft App Store you can use the Alt App Installer utility which gives you the ability to download apps in a user-friendly manner!

About The Author

Chris (vile_is_dead)

Custom Windows ISO enjoyer, FPS optimizer, and aim improvement enthusiast. Will disassemble all of his peripherals (and sometimes PC parts) to mod them even if all of them work perfectly fine. Discord/Twitter: vile_is_dead

0 Comments

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

ToggleWebHelper – The Quick Steam Web Helper Toggle

Last update 17 Mar 2024

The discontinuation of the Mini-Steam and no-browser command was quite a big hit for anybody trying to optimize their systems and downscale the footprint of background applications. People did find an alternative way of getting rid of all the web helper instances Steam produces but it was not without issues. There is however a new […]

File-Smuggling – Quick Way to Transfer Files!

Last update 25 Feb 2024

If you are working on multiple machines and need specific files transferred over quickly, one of the most efficient ways is to use HTML smuggling. The concept here is very simple and handy for quick file transfers and depending on your needs this might replace the usual Google Drive, or Mega Links. File-Smuggling For this […]

Getting Rid of Temp Files Quickly

Last update 18 Feb 2024

Temp (temporary) files are created while a program is in use for it to hold the information that is needed. In most cases, temp files get deleted automatically when the program is closed but that might not always happen as expected. Windows is pretty smart about auto-cleanup but some users report finding gigabytes of data […]

Winbindex – Public Library of Windows Binaries

Last update 10 Feb 2024

You likely had a situation where Windows is missing some sys or dll file making some application misbehave. Usually, in these kinds of situations, you would try all sorts of roundabout ways of recovering the file needed or just try to download it from some random site online. Fortunately, this situation can be resolved much […]

Geek Uninstaller – The Best Free Uninstall Tool

Last update 07 Feb 2024

Geek Uninstaller is a piece of free software that everybody should have on their computer if they want to keep their system tidy. The reason for this statement is quite simple and is based on how well Geek can do its job. What Does Geek Uninstaller Do? Geek Uninstaller is a third-party utility that allows […]

Starting a Program With a Preset Affinity

Last update 03 Feb 2024

Setting manual affinities for CPUs so you can manually optimize the way your games/tasks are handled is a quick way to gain some free performance that is left out by the Windows Scheduler. You have utilities like Process Hacker/Lasso that allow you to do this but then you need to have these apps open and […]