How to Download APPX File from Microsoft Store for Offline Installation?

New Universal Windows Platform apps (.Appx/.AppxBundle) on Windows 10 are usually installed online through the Microsoft Store. Despite Windows allows to install universal apps from the appx file (sideload), you cannot directly download the .appx installer file from the Windows Store. In this article, we will show you how to download an APPX file of any UWP application from the Microsoft Store and manually install it on Windows 10. You can use this guide to deploy APPX apps on computers that don’t have access to the Microsoft Store (offline, isolated systems, or corporate segment), as well as on Windows 10 LTSC edition (on which the Store is missing by design).

Our task is to download the installation appx file of the universal application from the Microsoft Store. There are two ways to get a direct HTTP(S) link to download the APPX file: using a special online service and using the Fiddler tool.

Generate Direct Download Links for Microsoft Store Apps

Let’s take a look at the simplest way to download the APPX files of any app from the Microsoft Store, along with the dependencies.

1. Open your browser, go to the Microsoft Store (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/windows?icid=CNavAppsWindowsApps), and open the page of the application you need. Copy the store app URL from the address bar. In our example, we will download the APPX installation files for the iTunes app (URL of this app https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/itunes/9pb2mz1zmb1s?cid=msft_web_chart );
2. Open the website https://store.rg-adguard.net/ (Online link generator for Microsoft Store allows you to get direct links to the APPX installation files of the store apps). Paste the link to iTunes into the URL search bar and select Retail in the drop-down list
   We’ve previously shown you how to use this service to repair the Microsoft Store app on Windows 10.
3. You will see a list of links to the appx installation files and required dependencies. Dependencies are applications or libraries that need to be installed for iTunes to work properly;
4. As you can see, there are quite a few files on the list. You don’t need to download all of them. First of all, determine the bitness of your Windows. For Windows 10 x64, you need packages whose names end in x64 (for the 32-bit version of Windows 10, you need to download x86 packages, and for an ARM version of Windows – arm);
5. Also, pay attention to the versions of the dependency files. You don’t need to download all the files in a row. As a rule, it is enough to download the latest version of the program. For example, in our example, you only need to download the latest version of Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktop library;
6. If the resulting list of files also contains packages with the .appxbundle extension, download them as well. If the downloaded file does not have an extension, add the extension .appxbundle manually;
   There may also be other installation file formats in the Microsoft Store: .msixbundle (MSI installer) and .EAppx (appx app update).
7. Download APPX and APPXBUNDLE files. In my example, the list of files looks like this:

   VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktop_14.0.30035.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe.Appx
   AppleInc.iTunes.MobileDeviceSupport_14050.7.53001.0_neutral_~_nzyj5cx40ttqa.AppxBundle
   AppleInc.iTunes.iPodVoiceOver_1430.3.53001.0_neutral_~_nzyj5cx40ttqa.AppxBundle
   AppleInc.iTunes_12113.17.53090.0_neutral_~_nzyj5cx40ttqa.AppxBundle

So, you have downloaded all the required APPX files of the application from the Microsoft Store. Manual installation of APPX applications from downloaded files is described in the last section of this article.

How to Download Appx Files from the Windows Store Using Fiddler?

There is a more complicated way to get a direct download link for the APPX installer of the Microsoft Store application. When you install any application, the Microsoft Store client on your computer receives a direct HTTP/HTTPS link to download the .appx file. You can grab the URL of this direct link using the Fiddler tool, which is used to inspect and debug HTTP traffic.

You can download the FiddlerSetup.exe installation file from the official site (https://www.telerik.com/download/fiddler).

After installation, run the fiddler.exe with administrator privileges. In the window that opens, click the WinConfig button in the navigation pane.

The AppContainer Exemption Loopback Utility window opens. In this list, you need to select the universal UWP apps whose traffic you want to redirect to Fiddler. To reduce the amount of traffic that Fiddler receives from other applications, select only the Microsoft Store application from the list and Save Changes.

In the main Fiddler window, you need to clear the current log (Edit -> Remove -> All Sessions or press Ctrl + X).

Now you need to run the Microsoft Store, find the application and run the installation (in this example, I’ll try to get a download link for the appx file of the Calculator Free app).

Switch to the Fiddler window and monitor the HTTP sessions of the Store application. There are quite a few of them. To find the event of access to the URL with the application file, you can use the session search (Find -> type appx ->Find sessions).

Fiddler will highlight the URL with the appx keyword in the URL in yellow. In our example, we are interested in the following session: Result: 200, Protocol: HTTP, Host: tlu.dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com. Copy the received URL to the clipboard by selecting Copy -> Just Url from the context menu.

In my example, the URL is as follow _http://tlu.dl.delivery.mp.microsoft.com/filestreamingservice/files/33e08cf2-faf3-4e23-a9a3-5d7c0502a6a4?P1=1627653445& P2=404&P3=2&P4=F%2fZeZWLKUurYuEwkJjnfuFc9zUJxjfiKD%2fGpH5OdktlnVwrfdcLsHeQER5c1RA5b%2fwH1ZVPQ8cJLOgWcoKEXjg%3d%3d

It remains to open the received URL in any browser and save the file with the .appx extension to your local drive. The file can be downloaded using any Download Manager or with PowerShell (How to download a file over HTTP using PowerShell).

How to Install .Appx or .AppxBundle File on Windows 10?

Copy the appx (appxbundle) app and dependencies files to another Windows 10 (Windows Server 2016/2019) computer and install offline bypassing the Windows Store with a simple double click on the appx file.

Also, you can install the APPX application with all dependencies using PowerShell. A standalone APPX app file can be installed with the following command:

add-appxpackage –path "C:\Users\root\Downloads\DigitalchemyLLC.CalculatorFree_1.4.0.78_neutral__q7343f88mnb03.Appx"

If you need to install several appx/appxbundle files with dependencies at once, copy all downloaded files into one directory and install them with the following PowerShell script:

$Path = ‘C:\distr\Appx\itunes’
Get-Childitem $Path -filter *.appx| %{Add-AppxPackage -Path $_.FullName}
Get-Childitem $Path -filter *.appxbundle | %{Add-AppxPackage -Path $_.FullName}

Check that your application is installed and that its icon appears in Windows 10 Start menu.

If you try to install an APPX application without first installing the dependencies, an error will appear:

Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073CF3, Package failed updates, dependency, or conflict validation.
Windows cannot install resource package XXXXX because the app package it requires could not be found. Ensure that the app package is installed before installing the resource package.

The graphical installer may show the package name to be installed::

App Installer failed to install package dependencies. Ask the developer for XXXXX package.