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How to Find the Microsoft Store GPO in Server 2012 and 2012 R2

Edit (02/15/16): I learned recently that a better approach is to just copy the Administrative Templates from group policy on a workstation and copy it into your AD administrative templates. Not as ridiculous, but still annoying.

This is probably one of the most ridiculous things I’ve encountered.

If you’re a system administrator, you sure as hell don’t want to deal with the Microsoft Store for your image deployments. It’s a superfluous piece of software that’s imposed on us, and Microsoft doesn’t give any tools during the deployment to get rid of it.

They make it even more difficult in a very asinine way to get the GPO you need to manage the Store.

In order to get the Store GPO, you have to install the ‘Desktop Experience’ feature.

Why Microsoft decided to do this is beyond me. Why would do I have to install a piece of bloat on my servers in order to get the GPO to manage the Microsoft Store?

Then you can go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Store.

2 thoughts to “How to Find the Microsoft Store GPO in Server 2012 and 2012 R2”

  1. Thanks for the info. I was trying to figure out why it was missing from the PolicyDefinitions folder (and Group Policy in General). Great work, Dr Brule!

    ~ Rhiannon
    AKA: Jimmy Brungus

    1. Glad I could help!

      Also, be sure to update the templates with the latest version of WIndows that you’re deploying, otherwise not all the GP settings will be there, and Microsoft changes them every now and then.

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