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The Xbox app will soon let you install PC games in any folder

The technology is finally here.

malcom tucker GIF
 
That's good news for modding. I played through Code Vein last month on Game Pass and was disappointed when I realized I couldn't mod anything because the installation folder was locked behind the WindowsApps folder (which you can't access without major workarounds, which I didn't want to deal with).
You could already do that ? I know Xbox App lets you select a drive on W10.
Drive =/= Folder
You can select a drive but it always installs to the restricted "WindowsApps" folder.
 

MonarchJT

Banned
what you mean they will let me ?? ..i do what i want
Well no, in reality you will always do what Microsoft will allow you to do in its Windows platform (for better or for worse) and the fact that it is not yet possible to do so proves how much the decisions of Microsoft impact Pc's as a whole. Luckily, since the Xbox division (thanks to Phil Spencer) was taken seriously on the higher floors right up to CEO Nadela, it would seem that their commitment to the Windows gaming platform seems to ultimately bear fruit and not just words. Telling it all to be able to play games that they were confined to console for decades is a godsend and gamepass is just as much !! If then (as it seems to be happening) this new interest will also push other companies such as Sony to invest in PCs, you will understand alone how much the arrival of Spencer has brought the good and the new to all gaming.
 
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Fuz

Banned
Well no, in reality you will always do what Microsoft will allow you to do in its Windows platform (for better or for worse) and the fact that it is not yet possible to do so proves how much the decisions of Microsoft impact Pc's as a whole.
This is why I keep away from 10 & 11.
And trying to fight my laziness and learn linux.
 
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MonarchJT

Banned
This is why I keep away from 10 & 11.
And trying to fight my laziness and learn linux.
well of course there is always a escape but honestly we all know that even if the efforts made on Linux it will never become a platform where games will be released constantly (I have heard "this is the year of Linux" for 35 years) and that PC gaming basically means Windows. Of course one can always dream, hope is the last to die.
 
This is awesome news. Lack of mods was probably my biggest complaint about GamePass on PC, and we're one step closer to solving that.

Between Steam Deck and the improvements in GamePass, PC is just killing it as a gaming platform for me in the last 12 months. Admittedly, both of those items still have to deliver, but future looks bright.
 

DaGwaphics

Member
Here's to hoping they make it easier to have a different Xbox account than the primary Windows account. Currently the app forgets every day (multiple times a day even) and you have to set which account to use every time you want to do anything. </rant>
 

elliot5

Member
I have to imagine a long term play with the Windows Store revamp and this and other PC centric things is to introduce a Steam Workshop like portal. Microsoft is very in to the UGC side of things with their games and newly added Azure/GameStack services. Cut out the middleman of Nexus and such while being able to capitalize on free and "paid mods" like what Minecraft does rn.
 

TrueLegend

Member
I am sorry but this app is one of the worst apps to ever exist. It completely vanishes games that are downloading and fills the space, then it allows you to press install on the game that is already downloading, and then it says you are out of space. Lost 50gb data on Horizon download. Look at this mess. Games installed 8 but 6 have vanished from install management.

j0boW1U.png
 

01011001

Banned
Jesus Praise GIF by MOODMAN




I am sorry but this app is one of the worst apps to ever exist. It completely vanishes games that are downloading and fills the space, then it allows you to press install on the game that is already downloading, and then it says you are out of space. Lost 50gb data on Horizon download. Look at this mess. Games installed 8 but 6 have vanished from install management.

j0boW1U.png

exactly, and having the ability to choose where the game gets installed and having that folder openly available fixes the very issue you described. now you can manually delete installs without jumping through 20 hoops
 
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elliot5

Member
I am sorry but this app is one of the worst apps to ever exist. It completely vanishes games that are downloading and fills the space, then it allows you to press install on the game that is already downloading, and then it says you are out of space. Lost 50gb data on Horizon download. Look at this mess. Games installed 8 but 6 have vanished from install management.

j0boW1U.png
the whole losing storage space thing is part of the reason for this change though... just manage the game from the icon on the left
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
I am sorry but this app is one of the worst apps to ever exist. It completely vanishes games that are downloading and fills the space, then it allows you to press install on the game that is already downloading, and then it says you are out of space. Lost 50gb data on Horizon download. Look at this mess. Games installed 8 but 6 have vanished from install management.

j0boW1U.png
But if you click on them on the left you can play them though?
 

TrueLegend

Member
the whole losing storage space thing is part of the reason for this change though... just manage the game from the icon on the left
You cant manage update and stuff like that
But if you click on them on the left you can play them though?
Yes.

Also I know more workaround than most people, I am highlighting how buggy this app is for years. Also, it's incredibly sluggish. They should just make an x86 app like edge for gamepass.
 

TrueLegend

Member
Jesus Praise GIF by MOODMAN






exactly, and having the ability to choose where the game gets installed and having that folder openly available fixes the very issue you described. now you can manually delete installs without jumping through 20 hoops
No it doesnt. You can already do that by registry settings. You can take ownership. The problem is this app being uwp. This is just a bandage. I am on Windows 11 dude. You don't wanna know how shit some things are. You play Forza and get notified with system resources low because File Explorer has a memory leak bug and is having dinner of your ram. An update was released today though. It hasn't fixed task manager crashing issue though so yeah this ain't Hallelujah.
 
Fockin' nice. I had to format my hard drive once because Windows didn't let me delete the folder.
same. because MS wouldn't let me delete it i lost 2TB worth of games and had to download them again.

oh and had to do it a SECOND time after i did a clean install of Windows. refused to let me play the games despite being on the same account i bought them. another 2TB download.

fuck the MS store. i will only buy their games from Steam.
 

01011001

Banned
No it doesnt. You can already do that by registry settings. You can take ownership. The problem is this app being uwp. This is just a bandage. I am on Windows 11 dude. You don't wanna know how shit some things are. You play Forza and get notified with system resources low because File Explorer has a memory leak bug and is having dinner of your ram. An update was released today though. It hasn't fixed task manager crashing issue though so yeah this ain't Hallelujah.

the issue you described is that you can't delete files from incomplete installs... but you can after this because it will be in an easily visible folder.

and yes of course you can take ownership of the WindowsApps folder and delete them that way, so that would also fix what you described I guess...

although, I had my issues with that in the past, where evem after taking ownership I could not delete some files from that folder
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
You cant manage update and stuff like that

Yes.

Also I know more workaround than most people, I am highlighting how buggy this app is for years. Also, it's incredibly sluggish. They should just make an x86 app like edge for gamepass.
But you haven’t lost 6 installations have you? Sorry what I meant was yes there’s 2 in your screenshot but maybe those are the only ones that have had updates / changes in the last week / 10 days?

Im not questioning your vastly superior knowledge to mine.
 
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TrueLegend

Member
But you haven’t lost 6 installations have you? Sorry what I meant was yes there’s 2 in your screenshot but maybe those are the only ones that have had updates / changes in the last week / 10 days?

Im not questioning your vastly superior knowledge to mine.
Well this is manage install menu. They all should be listed because usually thats how it is. But maybe and it is highly likely that these two did not get bugged because they have been recently updated like you are saying. It is also likely that some recent update of this app has made it so that you cannot truly manage the game from the manage install menu like before.

Regardless of details, this app is sluggish my man. And now when the windows app store allows for X86 apps and even when the edge is an X86 app; just imagine a real proper functioning steam like store. Microsoft being a top software company should not give this piecemeal bandage fix. I haven't checked this news in detail yet but Microsoft is also bad with giving proper deadlines about when will things happen. For example, Windows 11 still does not have android apps, that feature has now been made available on the dev channel. But they never say all those things in the announcement, do they? It's like companies sell you a promise rather than a digital product now, I am in the same boat with PS5's VRR promise and was for Dolby Vision'ss promise. We need to call this shit out.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
I am sorry but this app is one of the worst apps to ever exist. It completely vanishes games that are downloading and fills the space, then it allows you to press install on the game that is already downloading, and then it says you are out of space. Lost 50gb data on Horizon download. Look at this mess. Games installed 8 but 6 have vanished from install management.

The install hasn't "vanished" per se.. Unfortunately this is AFAIK how the app works for everyone right now (it doesn't make things better of course); only being able to manage updates and live installs. The Store app is also confusing, you have the library of all things there, and you can choose to update the apps - But no way to uninstall.. You have to go to Windows Apps&Features for that.. I agree it's not a good way to do UX, this should never be left to the user's interpretation. It probably ended up this way because MS is in the middle of trying to tie up the messy loose ends between Azure, OS, the store app, digital rights managements and the GP app. But they are clearly working on it (hence this thread), they have done improvements already. And from what I've read from their update queues I have a feeling it's going to be all good in the end albeit late. At least they have a massive 3.0 server infrastructure now that they can't go wrong with, but they really need to (again; ) tie things together.
 
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JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
You could already do that ? I know Xbox App lets you select a drive on W10.
You could select the drive, but the folders are heavily encrypted making the games an absolute pain in the ass to deal with. Certain games like Skyrim, Wolfenstein TNO, Wolfenstein TOB had major performance issues with vanilla settings, but would work great once you could mod them like on Steam. Being on PC Gamepass got rid of that and it was frustrating. Those games were pretty much broken with mods.

Hopefully this will bring that back.
 
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hlm666

Member
The install hasn't "vanished" per se.. Unfortunately this is AFAIK how the app works for everyone right now (it doesn't make things better of course); only being able to manage updates and live installs. The Store app is also confusing, you have the library of all things there, and you can choose to update the apps - But no way to uninstall.. You have to go to Windows Apps&Features for that.. I agree it's not a good way to do UX, this should never be left to the user's interpretation. It probably ended up this way because MS is in the middle of trying to tie up the messy loose ends between Azure, OS, the store app, digital rights managements and the GP app. But they are clearly working on it (hence this thread), they have done improvements already. And from what I've read from their update queues I have a feeling it's going to be all good in the end albeit late. At least they have a massive 3.0 server infrastructure now that they can't go wrong with, but they really need to (again; ) tie things together.
you can uninstall from inside the gamepass app, click the game icon on the left to bring up the game page then click the three dot button on the right and uninstall is in there. They really need to make it easier for everyone to use this thing, hopefully when this update comes through there might be some UI updates to make it less confusing.
 

Shai-Tan

Banned
Thank god. Saves for some games are hidden behind their shitty protected folders. I had to restart Tainted Grail after buying the Steam version because I couldn't get the damn save. Similar situation with Outer Worlds.

I wanted to mod a Yakuza game and it's just a huge pain in the ass.

And (unless I'm missing something) due to how Logitech G Hub works (have to manually select the exe - I suppose unless I go edit some text file) I currently can't have an automatically loading keyboard/mouse profile for Game Pass games.
 
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