Windows PC game - constant issues with windows store

[gbswales]

I am wondering if other people playing on Windows 10 PCs ever have problems with the store failing to open in Windows 10 which in turn prevents any purchase of airport cash. Whilst it might be a good device to assist self control, my strategy has been to buy a limited amount of airport cash during the special offers. This cash I use mainly to continue expansion or to purchase items not available for coins. For example, having reached my population limit (without a 540,000 coin upgrade to town hall) I wanted to start filling my vacant land with businesses that do not require any population to install - eg Donut shop. That way I could collect coins much faster until I have enough silver tokens to buy the population increasing hotel.

Each time this problem occurs I end up spending lots of time trying to resolve it with the help of the Microsoft community forum. I do this because I have to avoid the drastic solution of either a fresh install or a destructive refresh which would lose several items of paid software tha I have obtained free through giveawayoftheday.com or BitsDeJour - such software cant be reinstalled without purchasing a paid license. This of course would also mean GI having to restore my game as this would be one of the applications lost.

Frankly windows store is not very important to me as I rarely need to use it other than to make a payment to GI and on the odd occasion I want to get a new free app I am able to do this, using a browser, through the online version of the store.

I have suggested to GI that they could offer windows players an alternative means of making purchases other than the windows store. I have asked them if I buy airport cash on my dissused android version - could they given both codes transfer cash from the Android version to my windows game. Then I could purchase through android store. I could then avoid the time I am wasting trying to restore something that I otherwise dont need.

Awaiting a reply from them about this about this but wondered if others have experienced siimilar issues

 

[Agent_L]

I have suggested to GI that they could offer windows players an alternative means of making purchases other than the windows store.

That's not possible due to Store rules.
Microsoft has same rules as Apple and Google: if the app is in store, all payments must be done via respective store. Because store gets 30% commission from every payment, obviously.

 

[gbswales]

Whilst I havent been told that this is the case, it doesn't surprise me - I have a problem with Microsoft software which they wont help fix unless I pay them over £60 for a one off support issue - when I suspect their "fixing" would be refreshing windows, something I could easily do myself if I was prepared to lose some of my programs - I suppose this also explains why interaction between players on different platforms is so difficult. Oh well I shall just have to make "free to play" mean what it says.
The positive side is that with the store not working I cannot be tempted into spending money or downloading other time wasting games!!

 

[Agent_L]

@gbswales have you tried login to your MS account via web? Maybe you need to change password or something.
From my experience the most often reason of problems with store is your computer clock being misadjusted.
I imagine that when someone follows GI advice and turn off time sync, the computer clock will eventually drift far enough that secure services can no longer function.

 

[gbswales]

oh well I am not going to risk getting time locked during a space launch - maybe try that tomorrow

 

[Agent_L]

@gbswales usually it's very large difference that stops the SSL, I'm talking days. You would notice.
If you want to change the clock safely, you need to shut down the game and wait out as much as you want to change.

 

[gbswales]

according to the atomic clock I am about a minute 20 seconds slow. I also found that I cannot login to the windows store on line either which suggests this is linked to another issue that is preventing me from accessing some SSL sites basically windows thinks I am using a proxy server even though I am definitely not. Seems to be baffling the Microsoft community forum experts so far.

 

[Agent_L]

hmm, you seem like having lots of issues with your connection.

 

[gbswales]

tell me about it - I learned the lesson that I should not have gone down the upgrade win 8.1 route when installiing windows 10 - I have had so many problems since. I can see that soon I will have to consider doing a complete system refresh or maybe a clean install. The issue is that I will lose some expensive software that I cannot install again also I would have to liaise with GI support to make sure they can restore my game afterwards

 

[Agent_L]

I think that on PC you should be able to do full backup & restore yourself.