Acquiring Software from the Microsoft Store

The Microsoft Store provides a convenient and safe mechanism for acquiring software for your Windows PC.

To purchase software from the Store, you will need a Microsoft Account. A Microsoft Account provides you with multiple benefits as a Windows user but, for the purposes of this discussion, the key benefits it provides are to keep track of your application purchases and manage your OneDrive cloud storage.

https://account.microsoft.com/account/manage-my-account

You will need to link a payment method to your account which varies according to your location. Commonly, you will link a credit card or a PayPal account to your Microsoft Account.

https://account.microsoft.com/billing/payments

To purchase an app from the Microsoft Store, make sure you are signed into your Microsoft Account, then browse to the app landing page in the Store. The price, in your local currency, will be displayed on the purchase button. Hit the button to proceed to payment. The app will then be installed on your PC. Thereafter, the purchase button will reflect your ownership of this app. Alternatively, if a free trial is available you can hit the “free trial” button to install the software for free. The software will continue to run for the trial period. Thereafter, you will need to purchase the software to continue using it.

When the app developer issues updates, your PC will be automatically and silently updated with the latest version. You can see the status of your apps by opening the Store and clicking on the “Library” button. From here you can manually update your apps.

Your app purchase is now permanently associated with your Microsoft Account. You can see this in your “Order History” when you go to the Microsoft Account Home page.

https://account.microsoft.com/

The apps you have purchased now follow you wherever you go. If you purchase a new computer, simply sign in to your Microsoft Account, navigate to your Order History, and you will see options to download and install the app onto your new machine. In the same way, you can install the app on multiple PCs. The license allows you to install the app on up to ten Windows devices.

All apps submitted to the Store are deeply vetted and tested by Microsoft to ensure that they are safe and do not contain malicious code. When you install an app from the Store, you can be confident that no malware will slip unwanted onto your PC. On a deeper technical level, there are many other security benefits.

Store apps are installed in a hidden directory on your PC, and you generally have no input into the location of the installation. They can easily be uninstalled from the Windows Control Panel and reinstalled from the Store as required.

There are a number of ways to run your app once it is installed. You can run it from the app landing page in the Store. You can pin the app to your Start menu or to the Taskbar to make it easy to access. You can search for your app and, if you have used it recently, it will appear in the Recent list in your Search menu. It is also possible to create a shortcut to your new app and place it on the desktop. Hit “Windows+R” then enter “shell:AppsFolder” in the Run dialog. An Explorer window will open showing all of your installed applications. Right click on your new app and select “Create Shortcut”. A dialog will then ask you if you want the shortcut placed on the desktop. Answer yes. The shortcut icon will have a thick border around it to indicate it is an app acquired from the Store.