Updating the Photos App with no Microsoft Store

[Gongalong]

Hi Folks,

 

I need to update the Photos app on our Win 10 classroom PCs so it includes the new Video Editor.

 

We remove the Microsoft Store app from our classroom PCs when they’re built so there’s no direct way of doing it as far as I can see.

 

I think Store apps can be deployed with MEMCM, so that’s my next port of call, although it looks tortuous.

 

Just wondering if anyone has come across an alternative/easier way of updating an installed app when the Store app isn’t present?

 

Thanks

[psydii]

No idea if it will work without the Store App being there, but you could try winget https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget/

 

winget upgrade "Microsoft Photos"

[Norphy]

Failing that, pushing out an AppX bundle with SCCM isn't that onerous. You will need to download the offline bundle from the Windows Store for Business then create an application from an APPX, rather than from an MSI or a Script installer.

[jr_]

Grab this https://github.com/lixuy/LTSC-Add-MicrosoftStore/archive/2019.zip run it as local admin

then run this

powershell -c "Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.Windows.Photos | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register '$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml'}"

 

I've got ours in a MDT Task sequence

[Gongalong]

Thanks all for the replies, will give them a try.

[Theldron]

Thanks all for the replies, will give them a try.

 

Hi @Gongalong did you get anywhere with this?

 

Had Video editor in a previous build of windows, but changed the wim file to 21h2 and now don't have it.

[Gongalong]

We did get SCCM/MEMCM to work. It transpired that the current build of the Photos app is for Windows 11, which is why we were having problems installing it on Win 10 machines. We had to find the Win 10 version (2020.20120.4004.0) and then deploy that as part of the AppX bundle.

 

We rebuilt the machines over the Summer anyway, and this time left the Store app intact and blocked it with AppLocker. So hopefully it will sort itself out in terms of updating the app.