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VG247: The Forza 7 PC pre-load is an utter mess

It's completely insane to me that they sill don't have these kind of problems under control. The Windows Store has been around since 2012 for consumers and 5 years later it's still a mess, because they didn't have the foresight to deliver huge applications like this through that channel. How was this not on your road map since day 1, if the plan was to replace Win32 with Metro/Modern/UWP apps?
It wasn't created for games, it needs a complete overhaul.
 
Where are the usual Windows store defenders? Come on in and earn your keep boys!

This is a stupid theory for so, so many reasons.

Is it more or less stupid than the idea that a multi billion dollar software company has been incapable of delivering a simple download manager for several years now?

Hitting the restart button (round circular thing) does absolutely nothing. It will attempt to resume where it left off and error out again.

The trick is to hit the X and close out the download. Then go into the store for the game. And pick the option Update.

It will then say "Working", close it out then re-open the store for the Game Page and it will start the download. It will APPEAR to start the download from 0, however this is not the case.

This is just funny.
 

RionaaM

Unconfirmed Member
It wouldn't be the Windows Store if it allowed you to download the games you bought. No surprises here.
 
Not that frustrations aren't valid, but it's hard to have meaningful rebuttals with the general tone of the thread.

What kind of meaningful rebuttal are we expecting for these inexcusable problems that have plagued the abomination that is the Windows store for at least two years now?

"It works just fine for me so the problem must be at your end"?
 
Not that frustrations aren't valid, but it's hard to have meaningful rebuttals with the general tone of the thread.

What rebuttal? This happened exactly as anyone who was around GFWL said it would. Exactly. They should have just named it GFWL 10.

We used to have a large list of bullshit excuse after bullshit excuse from MS and it went back years. Everybody just updated it when the "new and we guarantee it works this time" version of GFWL came out. All the ridiculous stuff MS used to say about their PC gaming clients. It would be pointless to post it now. People gave up on updating the list years ago. If someone posts that list in this thread trust me it is wildly incomplete. It's been half a decade since anyone updated it because it was so pointless. MS gaming clients simply do not work and they dont care.

What kind of meaningful rebuttal are we expecting for these inexcusable problems that have plagued the abomination that is the Windows store for at least two year?

"It works just fine for me so the problem must be at your end"?

This is more than 2 years. It doesnt matter what the new client is called or what it looks like when the problems with MS PC gaming clients goes back across every client.
 
Online stores take 30percent so MS don't wanna share. Also they want 30 of other people's money in the future
You know what they could easily do? Exclusively sell their games on their website and have them activate either on Steam or Windows Store. But Microsoft is too stupid and stubborn to consider it. So once again I'll be skipping a Microsoft game.
 
You know what they could easily do? Exclusively sell their games on their website and have them activate either on Steam or Windows Store. But Microsoft is too stupid and stubborn to consider it. So once again I'll be skipping a Microsoft game.

I dont think Valve wants to allow that kind of thing anymore.
 

Zafir

Member
Yeah, mine errored a third to a half way through.

Not surprised though, I've always felt the Windows Store was awful for downloading. Terrible error checking/download management.
 
I remember that horror thread for PC Gears 4 on here.
Guys having to re-download 50+ gigs more than once.

Crazy this is happening again.
 
Nothing new, I went through hell trying to download gears to my PC on Windows store. Probably the worst experience I've had to date with pc. I'll never use the service again.
 
It's time they scrap the Win Store for these Xbox games and just do it all through the Xbox App. And use a new method because this one clearly still has problems.
 

LordRaptor

Member
Maybe they ought to make the Store Reset button an actual feature within the Store App (currently just in the Windows Settings -> Apps -> Store -> Advanced Options).

I mean... I'm not sure I would particularly trust a digital storefront with my credit card details that has a big "Our shit regularly breaks and we don't know how to fix it, but maybe pressing this button might work?"


What rebuttal? This happened exactly as anyone who was around GFWL said it would. Exactly. They should have just named it GFWL 10.

The GFWL store client worked better than this.
Well, before it got deprecated and all download histories became inaccessible anyway.
 
Pre-loaded the ultimate edition last night without an issue in six hours.

I had many issues (download of the game and updates) with Forza Horizon 3 and Forza Apex though.

Why I support this store? Well I love racing games and I am a man with patience.
 

jelly

Member
Maybe the next Fall Update will do something...in 2020. Is there any work in the pipeline to sort this which they will introduce in their twice yearly big updates?
 

Severianb

Member
How can a big company like Ms fuck something like their store up so badly.

Microsoft is a bizarre company. They have some literal geniuses working there as seen in things like 360 backwards compatibility and many other things. But they often are horribly tone-deaf and piss consumers off constantly by abandoning or underfunding important, consumer-facing stuff like.... the Windows Store.

I mean, that should have an absolute A-Team working on it and should be flawless. It's literally the way they want to sell most of their software so people buy it directly from them for maximum profit.

But it sucks and *has* sucked for a long, long time.

In my opinion, the Xbox version isn't nearly as good as it could be either. You should be able to sort by ESRB rating, price and you should be able to flag games for a wishlist and get alerts when they go on sale.
 

Sdkkds

Neo Member
Downloaded Gears and Horizon with no issues, Forza 7 however is giving me nothing but error messages. And I have a 6Mb line, so it’s like a 40 hour download. Thank God I have warhammer 2 preloaded
 

LordRaptor

Member
It's time they scrap the Win Store for these Xbox games and just do it all through the Xbox App. And use a new method because this one clearly still has problems.

I suspect thats what the Xbox team would like to happen, but it becomes difficult to justify that as in any way promoting windows when nobody who does not own an xbox is ever going to open an app called xbox.

There is a very good reason their Music and TV / Movies apps dropped the Xbox branding.
 

dr_rus

Member
just downloaded killer instinct no issues must be a forza problem.

Going to download the demo now and see how its runs

It's a connection and network h/w problem. Windows Store downloader is both unreliable (as in it rarely can resume a download after a connection loss) and tend to spam the network with dozens of connections on HTTP port which in turn may result in some cheaper and/or older routers to hang or even reboot.

Personally, I never had any issues with downloading anything from WinStore. But I'm sitting on a 650Mbit 1000Base-T connection on a rather high end although not new Netgear router.
 

Gestault

Member
I literally don't understand the issues on the Windows Store. I've apparently totally lucked out with my experiences (I've had no quirks of speed or download resets), but the scenarios in the OP are totally unacceptable for a service platform. They need to fundementally change their software infrastructure for file delivery. Problems like this make people turn to unofficial releases as a practical matter, more than a financial decision.

I suspect thats what the Xbox team would like to happen, but it becomes difficult to justify that as in any way promoting windows when nobody who does not own an xbox is ever going to open an app called xbox.

There is a very good reason their Music and TV / Movies apps dropped the Xbox branding.

I never understood why they tried to tie a gaming brand to something as different as movies and music on PCs.
 

LordRaptor

Member
I never understood why they tried to tie a gaming brand to something as different as movies and music on PCs.

I mean... they've publically said why (but not in the way I am about to paraphrase them); their traditional customer relationship has ranged from apathy to contempt.
The majority of their consumers think of them like a utility company - big, lazy, stupid and greedy, but you're stuck with them because you need their product, not because anything about them inspires any form of customer loyalty.
The Xbox changed that - it not only had genuine goodwill from many of their customers, it actually created honest-to-goodness fanboys that would go evangelise them for free, even on unrelated product lines, so they didn't need the usual astroturfing.
 

nekkid

It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
Microsoft: "From now on all the first party games will be available on PC!"

monkeys-paw.gif


"only on the Windows Store"

Haha amazing.
 

Rizific

Member
Where are the usual Windows store defenders? Come on in and earn your keep boys!

Ill say that ive never had any real issues with the windows store. gow4 and fh3 all downloaded just fine. had the download for fh3 going on my pc and x1 at the same time and the winstore finished while x1 was barely at 30%. every time a "win store is shitty" thread pops up i always feel kind of dirty because my experience has been much different compared to what seems like the rest of the world. obviously theres no doubt that the store is fucked for a lot of people, but so far play anywhere has been a god send for me. probably just jinxed myself for forza 7 now.
 

etta

my hard graphic balls
Phil Spencer - March 2016

"I understand the skepticism that people have, but I just want to stand up and say we're very, very committed as a company to ensure that gaming on Windows 10 is a great experience."
What’s Phil got to do with the team working with the Windows Store?
 

ViciousDS

Banned
they really just need to have a fucking xbox store on the PC seperate from the damn windows store.......UWP was not designed for 100GB fucking APPS
 
Not sure what they're talking about.

I didn't even know mine was preloading and just found 95GB less on my HDD the other day.

It did it completely in the background with no issues.

So, I guess I'm just going to be thankful then.
 
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/56wrda/guide_v20_how_to_download_install_package_for/

This guide only works for, and is intended for, Windows Store games that you own. It will not work for games you do not own a valid licence for
Installer for encrypted packages (.EAppx)

If you are not too familiar with using Powershell or a command line interface, I have created a program to install a downloaded package from a graphical interface. However, this program is very basic and does not show a install progress bar or any potential error messages during install. I aim to come back to it and add expand the functionality of the program in the future.

Guide to install
Windows Store has been causing a lot of issues for users lately, with downloads being reset halfway through (that still has not been fixed after a fix was pushed via Windows Update) and no possible way to copy files to another PC like you can with Steam, etc.
This guide will walk you through the steps of finding the URL to a game's install package generated by the Windows Store and then installing the package after it has downloaded.
Check if all PCs are up to date. You should aim to be running the Anniversary Update (1607) as the Xbox Play Anywhere games require this version of Windows 10. If you do not have it, you can download the ISO to update here

Download and install Fiddler.
This program will be used to find the URL for the app's install package.
In Fiddler, open the WinConfig menu, check Store and save changes. Image for this step

Open the Windows Store and start the download of the game

In Fiddler click the Find button and search for 'appx'. Then select a highlighted link and copy the URL using Ctrl-U. Image for this step

Exit Fiddler and paste this link into a browser or download manager and download it. I recommend the use of a download manager (I personally use DownThemAll!) as these links expire if they are inactive (such as the download was paused, cancelled or errored out) and a download manager will let you change the URL to continue the download.
Steps to replace URL in DownThemAll! (may be similar to other download managers)

Once the download is completed, if you cancelled the download in the Windows Store or are on another PC you will need to start the download of the game from the Windows Store and let it download about 10 MB of data. This is to obtain the licence information required to launch the game. Close the Store after you've done this.

At this point you have a number of ways to install it. To change the drive your game installs to, open the Settings app, then go to System -> Storage and change the setting 'New apps will save to'. Image for this segment. You will also want to be running in Developer mode (you can change this in Settings -> Updates & Security -> For developers)

If the file has the extension .Appx or .AppxBundle, you can simply run it (double click it) and it will install using the package installer built-in to Windows 10. This will not work for games downloaded as .EAppx

If using the AppxInstaller program linked in this guide, click the Browse button, select the install package and click Install. Image to this step. This will not show any errors such as lack of hard drive space/a corrupt file or the progress of the install

If not using AppxInstaller, run Powershell from Start (you may need to run as Administrator). Once in Powershell, enter the following command: "add-appxpackage <file>", where file would be something like "C:\ForzaHorizon3.EAppx". To make things easier, rename the file to something short and easy to type into the Powershell window, and if you wish to not worry about finding the file directory, in a Windows Explorer window showing the folder the package is located enter 'powershell' into the address bar to open Powershell directly to that folder (so you only need to type the file's name e.g. ForzaHorizon3.EAppx). Example of this step

Once you have done this, return to the Store and cancel the download. The game will show up as installed and it can be opened via the Store page or the Start Menu


Troubleshooting
If the install fails for some reason or another, the best thing to do is to Google the error code Powershell gives. The error code can be found on the first line of red error text
add-appxpackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: <error code>
You are most likely not the only person with that error code and there is most likely a solution to your problem.
Other general troubleshooting ideas is to run the Windows Apps troubleshooter (search Troubleshooting in Start -> View All on left side of window -> Windows Apps troubleshooter, it's 2nd last entry in list)
 

Chris R

Member
Glad to see Windows Store is still fucking garbage.

Reminds me I need to 100% Forza Horizon 3 before I reformat my PC so I don't have to hunt down a torrent of the encrypted appx file to install the game again like I did at launch because of how horrible Windows Store was.
 
This story pops up anytime a notable Windows Store game comes out. It was a mess for Forza Horizon 3, a mess for Gears of War 4 and it's a mess for Forza 7.
 

Nzyme32

Member
As if UWP wasn't enough of an issue, things like this are a good reason to use any number of other PC stores / forgo anything specific to that store, unless you are perfectly happy to contend with these regular issues (eg have unlimited data cap, intense patience, happy with UWP and a rather laborious refund routine)

Something something but muh steam monopoly

Something something I don't know what a monopoly actually is by definition

Wait for //build/

But how many builds to rebuild the store build? This is 2017 and MS is relatively competent as a technology entity. This is situation is just silly, but ultimately I feel that most people here are well aware of how MS has fared on PC so far to have some thought as to how things may go with this store and their purchase from it for large PC games.


IMO, you shouldn't game on PC if you lack basic troubleshooting skills. There is always a chance things can go wrong. It's inevitable and a double edge sword to PC gaming that you have to accept.

IMO this is absurd. Basic troubleshooting isn't a requirement. You can simply google / search Steam Community hub etc and find the answer for most games - but that is for game related issues, not the damn distributor and delivery of the product. This is ridiculous.
 

Spasm

Member
Where are the usual Windows store defenders? Come on in and earn your keep boys!
Not a defense-force post, cause I have had frustrating issues in the past (FH3, HW2), but this pre-load went flawlessly for me.
Came home from work and noticed that the Xbox had already pre-loaded, completely unprompted by me. So I kicked-off the PC pre-load and forgot about it for a while. Next time I checked, it was done.
It seems my experience is the outlier, when it should be the norm. Sort this shit out, MS!

Edit: I fully expect it to re-download the entire game at launch-time, instead of unlocking what's already installed, like what happened to me at Halo Wars 2's launch.
 

jrcbandit

Member
I bought GoW4 from Windows store and vowed never again. This was 1 month before Comcast switched to data caps in my area and I would have used up half of my cap to download this thing because I kept having to redownload failure after failure (redownloads used up 500 GB data). I can't believe this hasn't been fixed a year later....
 

Qassim

Member
If you seriously believe Microsoft took their Xbox exclusive games, made them no longer exclusive to Xbox, spent a load of money developing and marketing PC versions of those games, to put them on a store that sometimes doesn't work properly for some people JUST to push people towards buying those games on Xbox..

..you need your head examining.

Oh, and as a bonus - they made this store universally crap for everything, not just games. So their big plan to get PC gamers to buy an Xbox for certain games was to deliberately sabotage a core part of their new business plan for Windows 10, a business plan that extends way beyond games.

I've had more trouble with regular apps failing to update/download than games. Example (this stuff goes on all the time, just have to keep retrying.. most of the time I leave it cause I don't use the apps anyway).

All this.. rather than do what works far better to drive platform adoption: keeping games exclusive.
 

Leb

Member
In typical form, GAF is being wildly unfair to Microsoft here. It took 26 years from the epoch for Tridgell and his team to produce their file transfer solution; 21 years for Tim Berner-Lee's team; and 31 years for Bram Cohen.

By contrast, Microsoft has been working on their Windows Store for just 5 years. So let's maybe cool it with the Microsoft ridicule, shall we?
 
I bought GoW4 from Windows store and vowed never again. This was 1 month before Comcast switched to data caps in my area and I would have used up half of my cap to download this thing because I kept having to redownload failure after failure (redownloads used up 500 GB data). I can't believe this hasn't been fixed a year later....
Hell I got Gears for FREE and it was still a pain in the ass to actually download at launch.
 
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