Translating technical jargon into everyday English is one of Anni Martin’s specialties. She is an educator and writer who spent over 13 years teaching and creating documentation at the University of Missouri. She holds a Master’s Degree in educational technology as well as Bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Missouri.

If you get Microsoft Store is blocked, Check with your IT or system administrator error while opening the Microsoft Store on Windows 11; follow these solutions to get rid of it. However, you must have the administrator rights to use all the suggestions.

At times, you might find the Microsoft Store is blocked error while opening it in Windows 11. Although it can happen in an organization to prevent regular users from installing unnecessary apps on the PC, it is pretty unusual on a home computer. However, if you have got this error on your home computer or on a computer where you are the only administrator, you can follow these solutions.

To Microsoft Store blocked by administrator error in Windows 11, follow these steps:

1. Remove custom rule
2. Disable Group Policy setting
3. Unblock using Registry

To learn more about these steps, continue reading.

1] Remove custom rule

It is the first thing you need to do in order to fix this above-mentioned error. In Windows 11, it is possible to create a custom rule to allow or deny a specific app from running on your computer. If you have done it mistakenly in the past, you may get issues while accessing the Microsoft Store app. Therefore, you need to verify if there is any such rule or not. If it is for blocking the Microsoft Store app, you need to remove it accordingly.

First, press Win+R to open the Run prompt, type secpol.msc, and press the Enter button to open the Local Security policy panel.

Then, navigate to Application Control Policies > AppLocker > Packaged app Rules. Here you can find all the custom rules you created earlier. Find out a rule that has Microsoft.WindowsStore in the name.

Double-click on it and see if the Action is set as Allow or Deny.

If it is set to Deny, go back to the previous screen, right-click on the rule and select the Delete option.

Then, you need to confirm the change. Once done, close all the windows and try to open the Microsoft Store. Hopefully, you will be able to open it without any problem.

2] Disable Group Policy setting

There is a Group Policy setting, which might be responsible for this error. You need to check if it is turned on or not. If turned on, you must disable it.

• Press Win+R to open the Run prompt.
• Type gpedit.msc and press the Enter button.
• Navigate to this path: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Store.
• Double-click on the Turn off the Store application setting.
• Choose the Not Configured option.
• Click the OK button.

Then, close all windows and try opening the Microsoft Store app.

Read: Security software blocks UWP app from opening

3] Unblock using Registry

The same Group Policy setting can be enabled through the Registry Editor as well. Therefore, follow these steps to delete the corresponding Registry key:

Press Win+R > type regedit > hit the Enter button.

Click the Yes option.

Navigate to this path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsStore

Right-click on the RemoveWindowsStore REG_DWORD value.

Select the Delete option.

Click the Yes button.

Then, restart your computer and open the Microsoft Store in Windows 11.

Read: This app has been blocked due to Company Policy.

How do I fix Microsoft Store is blocked by administrator?

To fix the Microsoft Store is blocked by administrator error, you must delete the custom rule made in the Local Security Policy panel. For that, you can follow the very first solution mentioned in this article. That said, you can go to Application Control Policies > AppLocker > Packaged app Rules, right-click on the custom rule and select the Delete option.

How do I turn off Microsoft Store restrictions?

Depending upon the restrictions, you can try using the Local Security Policy, Local Group Policy Editor, and the Registry Editor to turn that off. You need to follow the aforementioned guides one after one if you cannot determine the exact error message. However, in most cases, you can resolve the error with the help of the Local Security Policy.

That’s all! Hope this guide helped.

Read: This app has been blocked for your protection by your system administrator.

Microsoft has announced it is making some changes to its online productivity services for education customers. Microsoft 365 for Education plans will have new limits on the amount of cloud storage for each user and institution.

Microsoft outlined these new cloud storage limit changes in a blog post. It stated:

For education customers with Microsoft 365 or Office 365, beginning at your next contract renewal, but no sooner than August 1, 2024, all school tenants will receive 100TB of free pooled storage across OneDrive, SharePoint, and Exchange, with an additional 50GB or 100GB of pooled storage per paid user for A3 and A5 subscriptions, respectively. In addition, effective February 1, 2024, users of Office 365 A1 (no-cost subscription) will be limited to a maximum of 100GB of OneDrive storage per user within the school tenant’s 100TB of pooled storage.

The company added it will release "a set of free tools" to its education customers that will help them "visualize current storage allocation and usage" so they can better prepare their files. Microsoft said that the vast majority of schools, 99.96 percent, are "well below their storage allotment."

Microsoft also explained why it is making these changes to the plans:

With the move to the cloud, stored files, data and unused accounts have increased significantly over time, as more and more stored files and data have proliferated without a plan for end-of-life. This is not sustainable from a cost or environmental sustainability perspective, and it puts education institutions and their students at risk for a data breach.

In addition, Microsoft stated that licenses for its Office 365 A1 Plus plan, which offered limited access to Office apps and services for free to education customers, will be shut down on August 1, 2024. Microsoft will still offer the Office 365 A1 plan for free.

Microsoft has announced its plans for Gamescom 2023, including playable titles at the Xbox booth and a live stream from the show floor.

On August 23, 24, and 25, Microsoft will host three days of three-hour live streams featuring deeper dives into “some of the highly-anticipated games at Gamescom 2023, with gameplay, developer chats, and community segments.”

As for the lineup, the following games were announced to be present at the Xbox booth:

• Theater Presentations
• Playable
  • First-Party
  • Third-Party
    • Over 25 titles, including:
  • ID@Xbox
  • A diverse range of titles, including:

Gamescom 2023 will run from August 23 to 27 at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany.

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Microsoft is planning to start selling a new version of Databricks software that helps customers make AI apps for their businesses, The Information reported on Thursday (Aug 17), citing people with direct knowledge of the plan.

Databricks - a data analytics platform that uses artificial intelligence, which Microsoft would sell through its Azure cloud-server unit - helps companies make AI models from scratch or repurpose open-source models as an alternative to licensing OpenAI's proprietary ones, the report added.

Microsoft and Databricks did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

In July, Microsoft laid out an aggressive spending plan to meet demand for its AI services.

The company has started integrating AI functionality across its products such as Azure, Microsoft 365, GitHub and several developer tools.