How to recognize Win32/64 Apps in the Microsoft Store, installing, updating, winget.

Question

Hello everyone!

I have a few questions about the Microsoft Store (mostly under Windows 10) - maybe someone can help me?

• How do I know before installing whether it is a UWP or a Win32/64 app?
  At first I thought there were different buttons (Install vs. Download) but this doesn't always seem to be the case.
• After installation I can most easily determine if it is a UWP app when the "Open file location" option is missing in the start menu - right?
• Are UWP apps always installed under "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps" or can they also be located somewhere else?
• Win32/64 apps are not updated via the store and do not appear in the library - right?
• Can an app with the source "msstore" be updated using winget? Will the source then change to "winget"?
• I noticed, that sometimes apps which were installed via the Microsoft Store are listed in winget without a source. Why is that?
• Apps that are no longer installed can be hidden but still not removed from the library - right?

Thank you in advance for any feedback!
Regards, Martin

Answer 1

Hello

The store app (uwp) is different from the desktop app. There is no msi installer package for them. They worked with appx package manifest.

What's a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app? - UWP applications | Microsoft Learn

We could open administartor command line and run "get-appxpackage" to get all the UWP apps for current users.

Run "get-appxprovisionedpackage -online", it will list all the uwp apps for the machine (all the users login this machine will get these uwp apps).