Many users want to lock down access to the Windows Store for their own reasons. But if you find that you are now unable to or cannot disable Windows Store in Windows 10 Pro, then this post will explain why this is happening.
Cannot disable Windows Store
If you recently upgraded your computer to Windows 10 Pro v 1511, you will find that even after you apply the related Group Policy setting to Turn off the Store application, the setting does not get applied.
This is by design, as now Microsoft has removed this option.
Earlier, you could navigate to the following GPO’s to disable the Windows Store in Windows 10 Pro.
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Store > Turn off the Store application
And,
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Store > Turn off the Store
Now, these policies are applicable to users of the Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education editions version 1511 only.
Microsoft feels that such capabilities are typically required by large enterprises only, and not by small businesses, and maybe that is why they decided to take this step.
What are your views on this update from Microsoft?
Now companies that have opted for Windows Pro instead of Windows Enterprise, which requires a contract, will have to resort to hacks to remove the store. Here, Windows PRO OEM is cheaper than Enterprise.
I have over 500 machines with Windows PRO OEM and the store is a gateway for unmanaged applications and games. Anyway access to the store is restricted in firewall and proxy.
In my opinion, such Microsoft wants to promote Windows Store for Business, which requires at a minimum, an Azure Active Directory (AD) account for organization or force the adoption of Windows Enterprise.
What is Microsoft thinking of??? Small Businesses want to protect their companies, just like Enterprises and Education do! The Pro version is suppose to be part of the business world, right? Now, my Pro version is for personal use and I can simply ignore the Windows Store. However, for the small businesses that use Pro, their employees may still use the Windows Store and download things that may or may not upset the business structure. This is bad on Microsoft, thinking they know what is best for a Windows user.
MS should just give up on the Windows Store for desktops/laptops. The apps are all useless and it’s destroying pc gaming by forcing you use it (ie. Quantum Break)
Microsoft should be bombed
Why should small businesses, for whom Windows 10 Pro is the most sensible option, be penalised in this way? We recently had to obtain a Cyber Essentials certificate in order to do business with the UK government. The one pick up point in the assessment was over access to the App Store (they consider unrestricted access to be dangerous and should not be allowed). But we cannot restrict access because of this decision by Microsoft!