Microsoft Store Now Lets You Choose Where to Install Games

Microsoft has just released a new update for its Microsoft Store app that brings an important new feature for gamers. Now, the digital storefront lets users choose the drive where they want to install PC games.

While this sounds pretty basic, the Microsoft Store is still lagging behind in terms of usability. And as some games on the Store such as Starfield or Forza Motorsport can take close to 100GB of storage, it’s really useful to bring these installation options front and center.

“This new experience works specifically on MSIXVC games. There’s also numerous under-the-hood improvements included with this new UX that makes MSIXVC installation more reliable,” said Daniel Paulino, Senior Software Engineer on the Microsoft Store team in a reply to his original post on Twitter/X announcing the update.

New Microsoft Store update just dropped, v22310. Available for all users. You can now select which drive to install games like Starfield, Halo, and Minecraft 🎮

Worked great when I installed Sea of Stars, one of my GOTY 🥰

Hope you like it. Send feedback! Team is listening 💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/N2J1z5ouKD

— Daniel 🇨🇦 (@kid_jenius) November 14, 2023

For those unfamiliar, MSIXVC is the abbreviation for Microsoft Installer for Xbox Virtual Console. It’s a collection of packaging tools that developers can use to distribute their PC games on the Microsoft Store. If you see an MSIXVC folder on your PC, it’s used for storing installers for games that you download from the Microsoft Store, and you really shouldn’t mess with these files.

Paulino’s comment on making the installation of games using MSIXVC “more reliable” is important: It’s actually not rare to encounter issues when downloading very big games from the Microsoft Store. That’s one of the reasons why the digital storefront still can’t really compete with Steam. However, if you use PC Game Pass (which is very good value), you have no choice but to use the Microsoft Store to download games from the library.

On X, Paulino also said that Microsoft is listening to feedback on how to make the app better, so feel free to share your list of grievances with the team.