Professional Needed! for Windows 10 RS5 problem

[Sylence]

There is a situation with Windows 10 RS5 Pro. I don't think there is any way to disable the Windows store or at least the updates. I have a game Installed using sideloading, it keeps checking for updates and won't let me play it without updating the game first. for some reasons I don't wanna Install the last update for it but I can't seem to get past the update notice.

 

Here are the things I've tried:

1. In  Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Store

I set all the objects to "enabled", more info here: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/43118-allow-block-access-store-app-windows-10-a.html

 

2. I set the "RemoveWindowsStore DWORD" to 1 from 0 in this registry pass: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsStore

 

3. using O&O shutup10 (https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10) I disabled some option such as (prevent apps form sending URL to Windows Store - prohibit apps from running in background - automatic app updates)

 

4. disabled app auto updates in Windows Store settings.

 

 

With all of them done still Windows store opens without any problems and also downloads and checks for app updates. I'm literally out of options.

 

does anyone knows how to do this? I want to cut the Store's access to the Internet and prevent the apps from knowing if there is any new updates of them. 

I think maybe there is a small piece of file somewhere in the Windows installation drive that tells the app there is an update for it, so no matter when i uninstall and reinstall the app, the file will still tell the app that there is an update for it. anyone knows if such file exists?

[knowledge-Spammer]

get a real firewall

http://sphinx-soft.com/Vista/order.html

[jbleck]

use fiddler to see what site/ip address the game tries to connect to when updating and then block access to that site/ip address with your firewall or hosts file.

[Sylence]

4 minutes ago, knowledge said:

get a real firewall

http://sphinx-soft.com/Vista/order.html

 

which app or program to firewall exactly?

 

3 minutes ago, jbleck said:

use fiddler to see what site/ip address the game tries to connect to when updating and then block access to that site/ip address with your firewall or hosts file.

 

there can be a lot of IPs since it's a Microsoft game, forza horizon 4 and needs to connect to the xbox app. so it's so hard to tell which one to block exactly.

[Sylence]

16 minutes ago, knowledge said:

get a real firewall

http://sphinx-soft.com/Vista/order.html

 

damn, this program is nice! unlike other firewalls, the default settings is to block all the programs and apps unless i change that and it detects every request. im gonna use restore point to go one day back before the update was available and then install this firewall while offline, then i will turn it on and see what happens.

[dcs18]

Implement a whitelist policy which "blocks all apps. & programs, by default while allowing only a whitelist of select apps & programs."

 

You can use any firewall to accomplish the above-mentioned policy.

[stylemessiah]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7

 

Or

 

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_windows_iso_download_tool.html

 

 

 

[Sylence]

39 minutes ago, dcs18 said:

Implement a whitelist policy which "blocks all apps. & programs, by default while allowing only a whitelist of select apps & programs."

 

You can use any firewall to accomplish the above-mentioned policy.

 

it came to my mind as well but only if you know which apps to white list and which apps to block, it's easy to say here but in action it's not.

 

i used the firewall Knowledge recommended and I blocked store and everything i could think of related to the update system but it still says there is an update. with Microsoft products and Windows it's tricky to tell exactly which system process handles which request.

4 minutes ago, stylemessiah said:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7

 

Or

 

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_windows_iso_download_tool.html

 

 

 

 

i said professional not trolls. there is a difference

[lurch234]

Maybe this update check is hardwired in your game? Whatever you do, it will still check for updates regardless?

This reminds me of a problem I encountered when I reinstalled a PC game after having played thru it successfully once. Some updates had been published

in the meantime and Steam simply refused to let me play without downloading the GBs worth of updates. The only solution I found was to apply a bloody crack to my store bought game.

 

[straycat19]

I don't run windows 10, however, I know from working with some friends a while back that the Windows Store won't work if using a VPN, a business account, or if the Windows Store service is disabled.  I don't know if that will work with more recent versions or if it is possible to block the service with a firewall since Microsoft has gotten heavy handed with its software a la Apple.  Enterprise and Education versions were able to use GPOs to block access and LTSB didn't have the store unless it was added.  All of this you may probably know, so if I have wasted your time, I apologize.

 

One solution I have in my tech notes is:

Click START, type REGEDIT.EXE and press ENTER Key

Expand KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsStore

Right click and select NEW > REG_DWORD

Name it RemoveWindowsStore

Set the value to 1

Reboot the PC and notice that the store is locked

[Whi5t1eR]

You have probably tried the following, but just in case, you could use comlet in PowerShell to uninstall Microsoft Store. Search for PowerShell and right click it to run as administrator, then copy the following comlet and press Enter key to execute.

 

Get-AppxPackage *windowsstore* | Remove-AppxPackage

[stylemessiah]

6 hours ago, Sylence said:

 

it came to my mind as well but only if you know which apps to white list and which apps to block, it's easy to say here but in action it's not.

 

i used the firewall Knowledge recommended and I blocked store and everything i could think of related to the update system but it still says there is an update. with Microsoft products and Windows it's tricky to tell exactly which system process handles which request.

 

i said professional not trolls. there is a difference

 

And i know there s a difference between trolling and a joke and to still have a sense of humour

Laugh occasionally dude, costs nothing and its good for you

[coromonadalix]

Since i have hot swaps drive i do this :

 

For the stubborn apps, i simply use an already installed / configured windows 10, reboot pc and put the ''normal'' Os as a slave, i go in the ''slave'' windows apps / storage folder, i simply delete them by force.

 

Since the ''normal'' booted Os can protect certain files it may not totally work, tried with firewalls, registry edits, policy rules

 

 

[dcs18]

6 hours ago, Sylence said:

6 hours ago, dcs18 said:

Implement a whitelist policy which "blocks all apps. & programs, by default while allowing only a whitelist of select apps & programs."

 

You can use any firewall to accomplish the above-mentioned policy.

it came to my mind as well but only if you know which apps to white list and which apps to block, it's easy to say here but in action it's not.

It's not rocket science to "know" which apps. & programs to whitelist — as a basic reference-point (example,) I whitelist the following essentials which would cease to function without internet access:—

• Browsers (Firefox)
• Remote Desktop Managers (TeamViewer)
• Peer-to-peer Clients (uTorrent)
• Instant Messengers (WhatsApp)
• E-mail Clients (The Bat! Professional)
• Local System
• NsLookup
• AntiVirus (ESET Endpoint)
• AntiSpam (MailWasher Pro)
• Download Manager (IDM)
• Encryption (Simple DnsCrypt)
• Proxy (Acrylic Proxy)
• AdBlocker (AdGuard)
• etc., etc.

The advantage of the above whitelist policy is that it's a one-time procedure — all (past, present and future) apps. & programs which are not whitelisted would be unable to access the net, by default (without any user intervention.)

 

 

6 hours ago, Sylence said:

i used the firewall Knowledge recommended and I blocked store and everything i could think of related to the update system but it still says there is an update. with Microsoft products and Windows it's tricky to tell exactly which system process handles which request.

As a matter of fact, I've just recently switched-over from Windows Firewall Control (WFC) to Windows 10 Firewall Control (W10FC) and have never come across any such issue — just check whether svchost.exe is whitelisted (remove it from the whitelist — if it is present.)

[Sylence]

5 hours ago, straycat19 said:

I don't run windows 10, however, I know from working with some friends a while back that the Windows Store won't work if using a VPN, a business account, or if the Windows Store service is disabled.  I don't know if that will work with more recent versions or if it is possible to block the service with a firewall since Microsoft has gotten heavy handed with its software a la Apple.  Enterprise and Education versions were able to use GPOs to block access and LTSB didn't have the store unless it was added.  All of this you may probably know, so if I have wasted your time, I apologize.

 

One solution I have in my tech notes is:

Click START, type REGEDIT.EXE and press ENTER Key

Expand KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsStore

Right click and select NEW > REG_DWORD

Name it RemoveWindowsStore

Set the value to 1

Reboot the PC and notice that the store is locked

 

in my post i already had done your tech note. actually modifying the GPO and restarting the PC automatically sets that DWORD to 1 from 0 but the Store still works like before. and I don't turn off VPN when I'm using Windows Store and it works fine np, I use OpenVPN. Yeah it's not possible to block only the Store process with firewall.

[Sylence]

1 hour ago, dcs18 said:

It's not rocket science to "know" which apps. & programs to whitelist — as a basic reference-point (example,) I whitelist the following essentials which would cease to function without internet access:—

• Browsers (Firefox)
• Remote Desktop Managers (TeamViewer)
• Peer-to-peer Clients (uTorrent)
• Instant Messengers (WhatsApp)
• E-mail Clients (The Bat! Professional)
• Local System
• NsLookup
• AntiVirus (ESET Endpoint)
• AntiSpam (MailWasher Pro)
• Download Manager (IDM)
• Encryption (Simple DnsCrypt)
• Proxy (Acrylic Proxy)
• AdBlocker (AdGuard)
• etc., etc.

The advantage of the above whitelist policy is that it's a one-time procedure — all (past, present and future) apps. & programs which are not whitelisted would be unable to access the net, by default (without any user intervention.)

 

 

As a matter of fact, I've just recently switched-over from Windows Firewall Control (WFC) to Windows 10 Firewall Control (W10FC) and have never come across any such issue — just check whether svchost.exe is whitelisted (remove it from the whitelist — if it is present.)

 

I've done it alright, with Windows Store games it's different, why don't you just try it yourself to see what I mean? you have to let some traffic through for the game to work, that complete black list and only whitelisting some popular programs does not work mate.

[Sylence]

6 hours ago, lurch234 said:

Maybe this update check is hardwired in your game? Whatever you do, it will still check for updates regardless?

This reminds me of a problem I encountered when I reinstalled a PC game after having played thru it successfully once. Some updates had been published

in the meantime and Steam simply refused to let me play without downloading the GBs worth of updates. The only solution I found was to apply a bloody crack to my store bought game.

 

 

Steam uses compressed data when downloading the updates so the file sizes are very small. for example if a Ubisoft game is about to get updates, Steam version of the update is about 8GB while Ubisoft version of it is 29GB.

if your game is single player you can edit the manifest file to tell the game there is no updates for it, but online games usually need all players to have the same version of the game.

[dcs18]

12 minutes ago, Sylence said:

1 hour ago, dcs18 said:

It's not rocket science to "know" which apps. & programs to whitelist — as a basic reference-point (example,) I whitelist the following essentials which would cease to function without internet access:—

• Browsers (Firefox)
• Remote Desktop Managers (TeamViewer)
• Peer-to-peer Clients (uTorrent)
• Instant Messengers (WhatsApp)
• E-mail Clients (The Bat! Professional)
• Local System
• NsLookup
• AntiVirus (ESET Endpoint)
• AntiSpam (MailWasher Pro)
• Download Manager (IDM)
• Encryption (Simple DnsCrypt)
• Proxy (Acrylic Proxy)
• AdBlocker (AdGuard)
• etc., etc.

The advantage of the above whitelist policy is that it's a one-time procedure — all (past, present and future) apps. & programs which are not whitelisted would be unable to access the net, by default (without any user intervention.)

 

 

As a matter of fact, I've just recently switched-over from Windows Firewall Control (WFC) to Windows 10 Firewall Control (W10FC) and have never come across any such issue — just check whether svchost.exe is whitelisted (remove it from the whitelist — if it is present.)

I've done it alright, with Windows Store games it's different, why don't you just try it yourself to see what I mean? you have to let some traffic through for the game to work, that complete black list and only whitelisting some popular programs does not work mate.

It's been done a long long time ago — and, continues to work here to the present day, without any leak . . . . whatsoever (fully tried and tested.)

[Sylence]

1 minute ago, dcs18 said:

It's been done a long long time ago — and, continues to work here to the present day, without any leak . . . . whatsoever (fully tried and tested.)

 

Okay, so which online Windows Store game you tried it on?

[dcs18]

Have tried it on a few games — lemme know if there's any specific game you would like me to try (that way we can have a common testing denominator.)

[Sylence]

2 minutes ago, dcs18 said:

Have tried it on a few games — lemme know if there's any specific game you would like me to try (that way we can have a common testing denominator.)

 

Forza horizon 4, I have the old 65GB AppxBundle file of it which is for 3 weeks ago but the update came 2 days ago for it.

[dcs18]

Just now, Sylence said:

4 minutes ago, dcs18 said:

Have tried it on a few games — lemme know if there's any specific game you would like me to try (that way we can have a common testing denominator.)

Forza horizon 4, I have the old 65GB AppxBundle file of it which is for 3 weeks ago but the update came 2 days ago for it.

OK, lemme try-out this one and get back to you.

[Sylence]

12 hours ago, dcs18 said:

OK, lemme try-out this one and get back to you.

 

I don't know where you can get the old game file from but good luck

[BimBamSmash]

I can only guess that it is the game you are referring to triggers the process rather than the store app. If this is the case then you are going to need to block the game's executable files and probably some DLLs that trigger network activity. You will also need to block the XBOX service from the web. There is a catch though. I don't know how that game functions but from what I have seen, most games these days require network activity to launch or work. Cutting the XBOX service or the games from the web could break them. If not then proceed with the block.

 

Things like this are not something I'd do directly with Windows 10's stock firewall. If you don't want to go for a third party alternative, there is this free, reliable tool called Windows Firewall Control, which sits on top of Windows' stock firewall and makes it easier to create and manage firewall rules. As with all advanced firewall tools, It has a feature called Notifications. Turned off by default but if you enable it, it will notify you of any new applications that is attempting to connect the internet, provided no rule has previously been set for the said app. Naturally, all Microsoft services are white listed by default so you either want to change those one by one, or you may remove all default firewall rules and start over.

 

For your task, you will need to block Windows Store and Application Framework Host. Their files are located at:

 

C:\program files\windowsapps\microsoft.windowsstore_11809.1001.8.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\winstore.app.exe

 

C:\Windows\system32\ApplicationFrameHost.exe

 

Since we remove XBOX services from out deployment images I don't know where its files sit but I am guessing it should be some place at C:\program files\windowsapps\

I imagine games downloaded from the store should leave their data files at the same spot as above too, but you said you side-loaded your game - I am not sure where the data goes when you do that. Regardless, make sure you block all executable and DLL files that attempt to connect to the web from the game's end. Windows Firewall Control will tell you which.

 

You may also want to install the game over again. There is a good chance that game's data files have been altered to mandate the update and stop it from running otherwise.

[Sylence]

5 minutes ago, BimBamSmash said:

I can only guess that it is the game you are referring to triggers the process rather than the store app. If this is the case then you are going to need to block the game's executable files and probably some DLLs that trigger network activity. You will also need to block the XBOX service from the web. There is a catch though. I don't know how that game functions but from what I have seen, most games these days require network activity to launch or work. Cutting the XBOX service or the games from the web could break them. If not then proceed with the block.

 

Things like this are not something I'd do directly with Windows 10's stock firewall. If you don't want to go for a third party alternative, there is this free, reliable tool called Windows Firewall Control, which sits on top of Windows' stock firewall and makes it easier to create and manage firewall rules. As with all advanced firewall tools, It has a feature called Notifications. Turned off by default but if you enable it, it will notify you of any new applications that is attempting to connect the internet, provided no rule has previously been set for the said app. Naturally, all Microsoft services are white listed by default so you either want to change those one by one, or you may remove all default firewall rules and start over.

 

For your task, you will need to block Windows Store and Application Framework Host. Their files are located at:

 

C:\program files\windowsapps\microsoft.windowsstore_11809.1001.8.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\winstore.app.exe

 

C:\Windows\system32\ApplicationFrameHost.exe

 

Since we remove XBOX services from out deployment images I don't know where its files sit but I am guessing it should be some place at C:\program files\windowsapps\

I imagine games downloaded from the store should leave their data files at the same spot as above too, but you said you side-loaded your game - I am not sure where the data goes when you do that. Regardless, make sure you block all executable and DLL files that attempt to connect to the web from the game's end. Windows Firewall Control will tell you which.

 

You may also want to install the game over again. There is a good chance that game's data files have been altered to mandate the update and stop it from running otherwise.

 

Thanks but I need Xbox and Game to be able to connect to the Internet, the game needs to load my profile from the online server and Xbox app is needed to tell the game about my ownership. if it was an offline game i would have done that myself before posting here.