Something I found earlier today, might be common knowledge but thought it would be worth sharing:
I've found that it's possible to download older and more importantly, delisted apps & install them on my Lumia 950 (running creators update, no insider builds) - there are some exceptions but, for example, I've found a load of old EA games I've purchased that I can now reinstall on my phone.
Go to the store, tap the burger and go to My Library - which then shows apps and games. Tapping the "show all" text next to either will show the majority of apps you've downloaded over the lifetime of your Microsoft account - for me that goes back to apps I purchased for my Omnia 7 back in March 2011. Each list is split into 2 sections - apps/games that work on this device and apps/games that don't. Each app has to icons next to it, one to hide it from the store, the other to download
It's not perfect - for example, I have a Spades game that is 2 separate listings for the mobile and desktop versions and it shows the desktop version as available for my phone but it correctly refuses to install.
Some games install but don't run correctly - the old Monopoly game from WP7 installs and works with the exception of houses/hotels not being visible (which is a big problem).
It seems limited to games/apps that you have purchased or are free only (trial only downloads aren't listed) - some of the Nokia exclusive games also aren't showing (Mirror's Edge, despite it later being released for all WP devices isn't listed) and the handful of games that didn't make it from WP7 (this list) also aren't visible (though these games are still visible from my long since unsupported Omnia 7.
I've not seen anything to suggest that delisted games would work but apart from Monopoly the 10 games I've tried so far work correctly - Flight Control, Battleships, the Xbox live version of Carcasonne, the original Xbox live version of Angry Birds that was delisted, Uno (not Uno with friends) - all there and working. Even the recently removed Evernote is available thanks to having previously installed it.
I wasn't aware this was possible with earlier builds - is this something I've missed? I'm guessing that these won't work with cshell, so I'm now left wondering if Microsoft have enabled this at some point so that we can access old games before they become permanently unavailable at some point in the future.
I've found that it's possible to download older and more importantly, delisted apps & install them on my Lumia 950 (running creators update, no insider builds) - there are some exceptions but, for example, I've found a load of old EA games I've purchased that I can now reinstall on my phone.
Go to the store, tap the burger and go to My Library - which then shows apps and games. Tapping the "show all" text next to either will show the majority of apps you've downloaded over the lifetime of your Microsoft account - for me that goes back to apps I purchased for my Omnia 7 back in March 2011. Each list is split into 2 sections - apps/games that work on this device and apps/games that don't. Each app has to icons next to it, one to hide it from the store, the other to download
It's not perfect - for example, I have a Spades game that is 2 separate listings for the mobile and desktop versions and it shows the desktop version as available for my phone but it correctly refuses to install.
Some games install but don't run correctly - the old Monopoly game from WP7 installs and works with the exception of houses/hotels not being visible (which is a big problem).
It seems limited to games/apps that you have purchased or are free only (trial only downloads aren't listed) - some of the Nokia exclusive games also aren't showing (Mirror's Edge, despite it later being released for all WP devices isn't listed) and the handful of games that didn't make it from WP7 (this list) also aren't visible (though these games are still visible from my long since unsupported Omnia 7.
I've not seen anything to suggest that delisted games would work but apart from Monopoly the 10 games I've tried so far work correctly - Flight Control, Battleships, the Xbox live version of Carcasonne, the original Xbox live version of Angry Birds that was delisted, Uno (not Uno with friends) - all there and working. Even the recently removed Evernote is available thanks to having previously installed it.
I wasn't aware this was possible with earlier builds - is this something I've missed? I'm guessing that these won't work with cshell, so I'm now left wondering if Microsoft have enabled this at some point so that we can access old games before they become permanently unavailable at some point in the future.
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