Windows 10 App: restore previous version of e.g. Remote Desktop
The Remote Desktop app was updated from version 6.3.9600.16419 to version 10.1.1874.0.
However, I liked version 6.3 for its "scalability", so I wanted to go back.
Proceed as follows.
Disable automatic app updates
- open the Store
- click on your profile icon and choose "Settings" / "Instellingen"
- disable "Update apps automatically" / "Apps automatisch bijwerken"
Restore the old version
You need a copy of the wanted version of the app, in our case Remote Desktop 6.3.
- uninstall the app
- copy the RemoteDesktop _6.3.9600.16419_neutral__8wekyb3d8bbwe folder to C:\Program Files\WindowsApps
if you don't want to fiddle around with the folder permissions, access this folder over the network: \\<machine\\c$\Program Files\WindowsApps\<YourApp> - in recent versions of Windows 10 and in Windows 11, this doesn't work anymore - use !PsExec from !PsTools instead!
- some apps, e.g. Edge (MicrosoftEdge _8wekyb3d8bbwe), are installed in another folder: C:\Windows\SystemApps - this way I easily copied an Edge version v1803 into a v1809 Windows version to solve incompatibilities!
WinX 1607 or higher
- install WinLibJS_VSE.exe (Visual Studio 2013 Extensions for the Windows Library for JavaScript)
- go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.1\ExtensionSDKs\Microsoft.WinJS.2.0\1.0 and double-click the Microsoft.WinJS.2.0.appx to install the Microsoft Windows Library for JavaScript
- now proceed with the following step
Add the package to your user account
C:\Users\boossy>powershell
Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
PS C:\Users\boossy> Add-AppxPackage -Confirm -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.RemoteDesktop_6.3.9600.16419_neutral__8we
kyb3d8bbwe\AppXManifest.xml"
Confirm
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Performing the operation "Register package" on target "C:\Program
Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.RemoteDesktop_6.3.9600.16419_neutral__8wekyb3d8bbwe\AppXManifest.xml".
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"): Y
PS C:\Users\boossy>
Grant access to the app folder
Grant access to "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES" (LOCAL user!) to folder "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.RemoteDesktop_6.3.9600.16419_neutral__8wekyb3d8bbwe"
icacls "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps" /reset /t /c /q