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Xbox PC App Sucks

sainraja

Member
Apple is the reason why, they put it in the app and they have to give Apple their cut. Same as you can no longer buy kindle books in the kindle app on android. Steam and PSN likely get away without paying the 30% because the purchases are not for use on the phone. It's kinda ironic that all these people converted web pages into apps and now you have to use a web page to actually do anything.
Yeah but we were discussing just that. The ability to buy content that is not going to be used on the phone. Sony has done it and Microsoft can as well. They can point to the browser for checkout within the app.

EDIT
LOL, I thought you were someone else. I kept thinking I know I responded to this but.....I think your avatar confused me.
 
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Kataploom

Gold Member
just had halo infinite completly dissapear off the app which its now trying to download all 67gb again.....i literally played it a few days ago.....why is this app so shit and randomly deletes games.
Heh... If you have a problem with "random deletes", try reinstalling Windows without uninstalling your Xbox app games, I'll asure you that you won't have to worry about it anymore, in fact, you won't even be able to delete the files anymore until you completely wipe your disk due to permissions ;)
 
The PC Xbox app is poor because it's coded by Microsoft. Often they do great stuff but they have consistently offered a poor store on the PC that has only recently improved by allowing users to actually see the folders they install games to instead of some weird hidden folder like before. When it works, it is fine but when it doesn't, which is more times than I'd like, then it can be a real ball-ache trying to fix. Mostly this is down to Microsoft's insistence on using vague error messages: "Something went wrong! Please try later!", as if that has ever helped anyone.

I recently replaced one of my hard drives but I backed it up using Acronis TrueImage first. Once I'd restored the image to the new drive, I noticed that all my EA, Steam and Ubisoft games worked just as before, which is what you would expect since it was a mirror image, but, no, not the Microsoft games. After doing a lot of Google-ing, I found that it was because Microsoft assigns an ID key to the drive for the games and if you install a new drive then the games no longer recognise it because the drive has changed. So I thought, well I'll just uninstall the non-functional games and redownload them - not exactly ideal but I have an unlimited fast fibre connection so it was an option. Sadly, this did not work because, can you believe this, I was unable to uninstall the games because Windows no longer recognised the games as being installed because the drive ID had changed!!! In the end I had to go into the registry, find the ID key for the new drive and then copy that over to the old keys used for the games. Only then could I uninstall and reinstall the games. How on earth a typical user is supposed to be able to do that, I don't know, but it just highlights to me just how out of touch Microsoft are with gamers and how poor their coders are. I mean honestly! I would never have this issue with Steam or Origin or even the (still) terrible Epic Games Launcher (terrible because it takes so damn long to open!).

Is it any wonder people hate buying PC games from the Microsoft Store so much? I know I do and I am only using it now because I subscribe to GamePass Ultimate which gives me access to games on both my PC and Xbox Series X.
 
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lucius

Member
Epic and Microsoft should try to just copy the way Steam does it for different drives, I left all my Xbox PC games on my main OS drive and now have no problems but that drive is almost full, I wanna buy Flight Simulator. I do really like how all my Xbox game saves just sync with Xbox/PC and if I delete the game I don’t have to worry about starting over like on Epic or even some Steam games that don’t support cloud saves. I lost all my PC Dragon Age saves on steam, I know now EA has their own cloud saves but it didn’t work right last time I reinstalled .
 

Knightime_X

Member
I can't even get the goddamn app to work.
Shit keeps crashing.
I went down a list of troubleshoots and at one point it ALMOST worked but crashed yet again.
 
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Tams

Gold Member
The PC Xbox app is poor because it's coded by Microsoft. Often they do great stuff but they have consistently offered a poor store on the PC that has only recently improved by allowing users to actually see the folders they install games to instead of some weird hidden folder like before. When it works, it is fine but when it doesn't, which is more times than I'd like, then it can be a real ball-ache trying to fix. Mostly this is down to Microsoft's insistence on using vague error messages: "Something went wrong! Please try later!", as if that has ever helped anyone.

I recently replaced one of my hard drives but I backed it up using Acronis TrueImage first. Once I'd restored the image to the new drive, I noticed that all my EA, Steam and Ubisoft games worked just as before, which is what you would expect since it was a mirror image, but, no, not the Microsoft games. After doing a lot of Google-ing, I found that it was because Microsoft assigns an ID key to the drive for the games and if you install a new drive then the games no longer recognise it because the drive has changed. So I thought, well I'll just uninstall the non-functional games and redownload them - not exactly ideal but I have an unlimited fast fibre connection so it was an option. Sadly, this did not work because, can you believe this, I was unable to uninstall the games because Windows no longer recognised the games as being installed because the drive ID had changed!!! In the end I had to go into the registry, find the ID key for the new drive and then copy that over to the old keys used for the games. Only then could I uninstall and reinstall the games. How on earth a typical user is supposed to be able to do that, I don't know, but it just highlights to me just how out of touch Microsoft are with gamers and how poor their coders are. I mean honestly! I would never have this issue with Steam or Origin or even the (still) terrible Epic Games Launcher (terrible because it takes so damn long to open!).

Is it any wonder people hate buying PC games from the Microsoft Store so much? I know I do and I am only using it now because I subscribe to GamePass Ultimate which gives me access to games on both my PC and Xbox Series X.
I don't know what happened at Microsoft, but all their Modern UI/UWP/etc. stuff has been a mess in some way. From poor performance (lag where there never used to be any) to lacking features.

And they've started to transition parts of Windows itself to it, making it slower. Seriously, even the damn Start Menu can be slow now. How?!
 

Krathoon

Member
Also, you can't just simply delete your Microsoft Store games in Windows Explorer. There is a security lock on the folder they are in. You have to uninstall them through the store. Microsoft holds part of your hard drive hostage.
 

CuNi

Member
They still don't have a locate game function but you can just install the game in the exact same location and it will discover the old files.
Besides that, Xbox App been working great for me.
Only downside is, if you're browsing games u can install with GP on PC and want to look at screenshots of said game so you open the game page, once you go back to the GP Catalog, it doesn't scroll back down to where you were but you have to scroll down from the top yourself again. Mildly annoying but not a major killer.
 

Krathoon

Member
They really don't want you to mess with the game files. They seem to encrypt the save games too. There is a homebrew app you can use to extract them.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
Xbox games on PC used to be "locked down", and you would even at some time end up with a non-bootable OS if you swapped out a non-OS drive but with UWP games on it, it was terrible. But then a while ago they announced that they'd change to more relaxed and user-friendly features, and lately they've been rolling them out:

YK2oxYk.png


F.ex. you can now also change the drive and browse these games' folders freely without getting "access denied" messages. Obviously this may not work retroactively for "older" / UWP games AFAIK.
 
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I can install or move any games around now from the Xbox app just like Steam. Shit lifted the baseq2 parts from the free game pass quake 2 over to the Nvidia RTX demo for a full copy to play it through. Sounds more like user error to me.
 

BlackTron

Member
Half the reason I got an Xbox was to save me from having to use Xbox app on PC or even Windows 10/11.

But now there are some gamepass games I'd actually like to try that are PC only like AOE4. I don't get why they can't just put it on Xbox....the whole thing feels like a bungled mess.
 

BlackTron

Member
Xbox games on PC used to be "locked down", and you would even at some time end up with a non-bootable OS if you swapped out a non-OS drive but with UWP games on it, it was terrible. But then a while ago they announced that they'd change to more relaxed and user-friendly features, and lately they've been rolling them out:

YK2oxYk.png


F.ex. you can now also change the drive and browse these games' folders freely without getting "access denied" messages. Obviously this may not work retroactively for "older" / UWP games AFAIK.

IIRC in the past I had an issue trying to delete Xbox games from a different drive after the OS drive was changed. I ended up having to format it just to get the games off.

There you have Microsoft's best strategy to get people to buy a console.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
IIRC in the past I had an issue trying to delete Xbox games from a different drive after the OS drive was changed. I ended up having to format it just to get the games off.

There you have Microsoft's best strategy to get people to buy a console.
Well, the point is that it's not like that anymore. Last time I swapped a drive with Xbox games on it was more or less seamless. I think they announced the transition like one or two years ago (?), and they're well into rolling it out, including mod support as I understand it. And it's not like Steam has gone anywhere for the past 15+ years either.
 
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BlackTron

Member
Well, the point is that it's not like that anymore. Last time I swapped a drive with Xbox games on it was more or less seamless. I think they announced the transition like one or two years ago (?), and they're well into rolling it out, including mod support as I understand it. And it's not like Steam has gone anywhere for the past 15+ years either.

I get the point is that it's changing, thus why I bought it up.

Yeah I use Steam a lot but I was talking about Xbox games. If it's a game like Forza, or even just a title that happens to be on Gamepass so you don't have to buy it, you're gonna need Windows 10 and Xbox app to play it.

I'd rather play AOE2 again than go through that just to play 4 lol. Put it on Xbox -__-
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
Half the reason I got an Xbox was to save me from having to use Xbox app on PC or even Windows 10/11.

But now there are some gamepass games I'd actually like to try that are PC only like AOE4. I don't get why they can't just put it on Xbox....the whole thing feels like a bungled mess.
Windows is great tho... The problem is that the Xbox app is buggier in Xbox 10 than in 11, that's the only reason I keep my windows 11 install
 

BlackTron

Member
Windows is great tho... The problem is that the Xbox app is buggier in Xbox 10 than in 11, that's the only reason I keep my windows 11 install

There's where we disagree. I have tried numerous times to move into 10 from 7 and it always pisses me off so much I just go back.

I main 7 and swap out a different SSD when I absolutely need 10. Which, thanks to Xbox, is not that often.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
There's where we disagree. I have tried numerous times to move into 10 from 7 and it always pisses me off so much I just go back.

I main 7 and swap out a different SSD when I absolutely need 10. Which, thanks to Xbox, is not that often.
That's a matter of preferences then, You're just too used to 7, but the system is great
 
Why is MS so bad at this? Countless attempts at this point and their stores on PC always suck. I had countless issues with it, the way it manages files and installation is absurd (not sure if they changed it at this point, haven't used it in a few months).

The new EA Origins is the only launcher that I consider worse than the Xbox one and that's only because for me at least it just didn't work at all (when I tried it some time ago at least).
 
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Krathoon

Member
What annoys me is that it locks up the folder where the games are at. Steam and the other shops don't do that.
It is really obnoxious.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Why is MS so bad at this? Countless attempts at this point and their stores on PC always suck. I had countless issues with it, the way it manages files and installation is absurd (not sure if they changed it at this point, haven't used it in a few months).
Because they used to want to have control over PC gaming. They have (very) slowly realized that this isn't possible. Gamepass was their last Trojan horse and I think they have finally admitted defeat.
 

MScarpa

Member
Why is MS so bad at this? Countless attempts at this point and their stores on PC always suck. I had countless issues with it, the way it manages files and installation is absurd (not sure if they changed it at this point, haven't used it in a few months).

The new EA Origins is the only launcher that I consider worse than the Xbox one and that's only because for me at least it just didn't work at all (when I tried it some time ago at least).
I personally haven't had any issues, but that doesn't mean much. I also use Gamepass more on PC then anything else. Really want Sony to get an android streaming app.
 
I personally haven't had any issues, but that doesn't mean much. I also use Gamepass more on PC then anything else. Really want Sony to get an android streaming app.
What a surprise that it works perfectly for you, who would've guessed?
 
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MScarpa

Member
What a surprise that it works perfectly for you, who would've guessed?
I don't have any issues with it. Again just my opinion. Relax dude, don't get all upset. People can have different opinions, despite what you make think. If you can't handle it, go back to the other site and be angry.
 
I don't have any issues with it. Again just my opinion. Relax dude, don't get all upset. People can have different opinions, despite what you make think. If you can't handle it, go back to the other site and be angry.
Oh he we go, working on getting me banned again? Put me on ignore and move on.
 
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MScarpa

Member
Oh he we go, working on getting me banned again? Put me on ignore and move on.
I've said it before I'll say it again. I don't want you banned. I have never reported you once. I wish you wouldn't attack all the time. It's gaming bro. With that said, let's stay on topic.

I haven't had any issues like I said, but it doesn't mean they don't exist. Just my experience.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
I personally haven't had any issues, but that doesn't mean much. I also use Gamepass more on PC then anything else. Really want Sony to get an android streaming app.

Same, but unlike your scenario, my Game Pass PC app usage is fairly limited, right now I'm playing through the couple of Wolfenstein and Quake stuff they added recently.

But even historically I, *personally*, haven't had issues like HDD storage bloat etc in my usage.

I do have one issue that the game pass app always wants me to update it but I can't exactly find an update in the MS store and it doesn't really stop the app from working, but there is an annoying banner on top of the app whenever I launch it.
 

MScarpa

Member
I do have one issue that the game pass app always wants me to update it but I can't exactly find an update in the MS store and it doesn't really stop the app from working, but there is an annoying banner on top of the app whenever I launch it.

So that is a gamepass system service I THINK. Something along those lines. Maybe check and see if you have any services disabled? I'm probably wrong. 😂
 

pasterpl

Member
Odd, I have had 0 issues with Xbox windows app, I am on windows 11 on quite powerful, new gaming laptop. I use it occasionally as mostly I play on my Xbox but I cannot recall any specific issue with Xbox app on windows 11.
 

Krathoon

Member
Because they used to want to have control over PC gaming. They have (very) slowly realized that this isn't possible. Gamepass was their last Trojan horse and I think they have finally admitted defeat.
PC gaming is the Wild West, baybeee.
Microsoft wants to lock it down like XBox.
It defeats the purpose of owning a PC.
They are trying to make it like a smartphone. Limit your control of your files.
They want a PC to be a device. It is irritating.
 

twilo99

Member
Odd, I have had 0 issues with Xbox windows app, I am on windows 11 on quite powerful, new gaming laptop. I use it occasionally as mostly I play on my Xbox but I cannot recall any specific issue with Xbox app on windows 11.

Same, no issues for me on both my gaming pc with windows 10 and my windows 11 laptop.
 

Deanington

Member
So the people that have issues with Operating systems, do you guys just tinker with the os and fuck things up? I am genuinely curious to know how one os works fine but another doesnt? I dont think I have ever had problems out side of early ME/XP days of adware, malware, etc. from my internet usage. Which I corrected mid/late XP into Vista ( which was a fine os too ). Outside of work, porn, and games what are you doing with your pc's to have issues?
 

Soodanim

Member
So the people that have issues with Operating systems, do you guys just tinker with the os and fuck things up? I am genuinely curious to know how one os works fine but another doesnt? I dont think I have ever had problems out side of early ME/XP days of adware, malware, etc. from my internet usage. Which I corrected mid/late XP into Vista ( which was a fine os too ). Outside of work, porn, and games what are you doing with your pc's to have issues?

I also have more hardware compat, driver, stability and random game issues on 10 than 7.
The answer was already posted for you by BT before you asked it. As Windows updates, they transition away from certain libraries. This can result in issues with hardware and software alike. With games it is common to find a fan patch or fix, because there's a lot of talented fans out there. But with hardware it's less common.
 

JCK75

Member
The Family app is the absolute worst.. have my son set to request funds from me for games.. he wanted something in minecraft, request came through.. added money for him
ended up adding like $30 and the requests keep coming.. when I go to accept it asks me to add funds.. it's insane. He's sitting there with $30 that seems to be completely unusable.
 

Fuz

Banned
I never used it so I don't really know, but I think I've read about it somewere... isn't it also a mess of authorizations, locked folders and leftover files at uninstall?
 
I don't know if it's Xbox team to blame for this, but installing EA Play app just to use the EA subscription within XGP is a little bit too much, I understand why they have to do this, but it seems like not a single thought went into making a user experience as flawless as possible, that is really disappointing.
 

yamaci17

Member
I never used it so I don't really know, but I think I've read about it somewere... isn't it also a mess of authorizations, locked folders and leftover files at uninstall?
that's a thing of past, you can now access almost all files and install them to a specific folder you can see and interact with

however changing the folder location on a whim still causes weird bugs so it is best to use a single hard drive - single folder to ensure no bugs or weird things happen (notsaying they'd happen. i just avoid it)
 
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Reactions: Fuz
just spent all of yesterday downloading halo infinite 67gb...cool thought id carry on playing it tonight....oh nope nope no need redownloading all 67gb


fucking pile of shit
 
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