Store for Business - Multiple Users in One Machine

[Diogo Sousa]

Hello and greetings from Portugal!

Just a quick question about the Microsoft Store for Business.

If two users login to a machine, they both need to install the same app? And if so, the app gets installed twice?

Best Regards,

Diogo Sousa

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Yes, they both need to install the app seperatley.
No, they do not get instaleld twice. Store-Apps get installed into "%PROGRAMFILES%\WindowsApps\" and get linked into "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps\".
So the first user that installs an App from the store, actually downloads the binaries and puts them into the program files directory. After that, the files get linked into the userprofile and only user-specific data is saved into the users profile. The next user that installs the same app, just has to wait for a binary check (if the app inside program files is the correct version available online) and, if it checks out ok, just gets the corresponding links inside his user-profile.

EDIT: The above assumes an up-to-date Windows 10 or Windows 11 version!

[#3]

Hi
I would like to add that a user without administrator rights will not install any application - security rules usually prevent this.

[#4]

This is not correct for Store-Apps. All UWP and many non-UWP Apps from the store can be installed without administrative permissions. That was one of the big ideas for modern Windows Apps, to enable users to install/uninstall their own apps, without security implications or administrative problems. As there are now non-UWP Apps in the store as well, there are some exceptions which actually need administrative permissions to install. But the majority of them are sandboxed user-mode applications only.

[#5]

Hi dretzer!

Thank you so much for your answer!