How to Speed Up Microsoft Store Downloads

Windows 10, a major makeover for Microsoft, brought a lot of changes. One of them is the Microsoft Store. It’s pretty neat to have all Windows apps organized in one place. It makes it easy to search for both free and paid apps. The installation process is simple and you can easily update them.

But what if the app or game you’re trying to download is taking too long or isn’t downloading at all? You know it usually does, so what gives? It can be annoying, but it’s not something that’s ever permanent. Here are some reasons why this happens and how you can speed it up.

Are Microsoft Servers Down?

This might not be something you immediately think of, but it’s worth eliminating as an option. Microsoft Store runs on a Cloud service platform called Azure. You can use a Down Detector site to check if there’s an outage for different kinds of providers and sites, including Microsoft. If there’s an issue, you’ll just have to wait till the problem is fixed. If the report says that everything is working fine, it’s time to move on to the next solution.

Check Your Internet Speed

When something you’re trying to download is taking too long, it often has something to do with how fast or stable your internet connection is. Perhaps you’re trying to get something from Microsoft Store but you’re not at home, and you don’t know your Wi-Fi speed.

Or, your home network is experiencing certain issues. The first thing you need to do is to check your internet speed. If all is well, move on to the next suggestion. If there are issues, reboot your router or call your internet provider.

Sign Out of the Microsoft Store

Let’s stick to the basics before moving onto more complicated solutions.

1. Launch Microsoft Store from the Windows menu and sign out of your account.
2. You’ll see your profile in the upper right corner of the screen. When you do that, it’s a good idea to restart your computer.
3. When you’re back on, launch the Microsoft Store again and sign in with your details. This approach works for a lot of apps that have downloading issues, and it’s possible it will help you with the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft Store Might Be Busy

Before you get too annoyed with how slow the downloads are going and lose patience, remember that there’s an order to downloading apps in the Microsoft Store. This means that if you’re trying to download many apps at once, only a few will actually start downloading at the same time. The rest are standing in a queue.

Check for Updates

If you’re certain that something is wrong with the Microsoft Store and the downloads are taking too long, it’s possible that it’s a bug. The best course of action is to go and check if Microsoft has already addressed the issue and provided a solution in the form of an update.

1. Go to Windows Settings (Windows key + I) and select Update & Security to see if there are any new Windows updates.
2. If there are, download and install them. Restart your computer and then sign into Microsoft Store again to check if there are any more download issues.

Reset Microsoft Store

You can also reset Microsoft Store by re-registering It to your Microsoft account. This doesn’t mean you need to delete it from your computer. At worst, this action will remove your settings, but that you can set back again.

1. Just go to Windows Settings and select Apps.
2. Find Microsoft Store and then select Advanced options underneath.
3. You need to scroll all the way down and select Reset. That’s all there is to it. Perhaps, this will be the jump start for your apps to download faster.

Delete Cache Files

However, maybe the recent Windows update was what messed up the Windows Store speeds. If everything was working fine before the update, and all of a sudden it isn’t, it’s worth investigating. What you can do is delete the associated cache files to be sure that it’s not causing the problem.

1. Open the Command Prompt app from the Start menu and type in “wsreset” command.
2. When the system is done cleaning the cache, recheck if the Microsoft Store is downloading apps properly.

Delivery Optimization Settings

It’s possible that your Windows settings has the limit for the download speeds at a too low percentage. The maximum speed for downloading could be what’s preventing you from downloading the apps in question. But you can easily fix this.

1. Just go to the Start menu and then type in the Search box “Delivery Optimization advanced settings”.
2. Under Advanced options, use the slider to change the percentage slider. Increase the limit of how much bandwidth can be used for downloading updates in the background and foreground.

The Need for (Download) Speed

Whether you’re trying to download Netflix, games, or messaging apps, you need Microsoft Store to deliver fast. After all, it’s a product from a tech giant and expectations are high. But sometimes it’s Microsoft aren’t at fault. And even if some settings are off, you can easily fix them. Main culprits are usually your Wi-Fi or that you’re trying to download too many apps at once. Whatever the case may be, there’s always a solution.

Have you ever had any issues with downloading from Microsoft Store? Were you able to fix it? Let us know in the comments section below.