How to Learn the Countries Where Windows Store Apps are Available

How to Learn the Countries Where Windows Store Apps are Available

Even though each app in the Windows Store has its own webpage that can be found using a search engine, Microsoft doesn't offer a full web version of the Windows Store. Also, in the Windows Store app, you cannot view apps that are not available in your region. This raises an interesting issue: you can't learn the countries where an app is available. It can happen that an app that you like is in the Windows Store but it is not available for your country. How do you learn the countries where any app is available?

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Welcome to the 3rd-Party Web Version of the Windows Store

As I said in the introduction, Microsoft doesn't offer a web version of the Windows Store. Luckily, there's a third party alternative named MetroStore Scanner. This website is updated daily and it provides complete information about all the apps that are a found in the Windows Store, for all countries and regions.

Windows Store, MetroStore Scanner, apps, countries, information
Windows Store, MetroStore Scanner, apps, countries, information

Find Windows Store Apps with the MetroStore Scanner

On the top right you will see a Filter box that can be used for searching. For this tutorial, let's assume that you are interested to learn if there are any Hulu apps in the Windows Store and the countries where they are available.

Type the name of the app you are looking for and click or tap Apply. In my case, I typed hulu.

Windows Store, MetroStore Scanner, apps, countries, information
Windows Store, MetroStore Scanner, apps, countries, information

A complete list of search results is displayed. For each result, you see the app name, its rating, category, price and the date when it was last updated.

Windows Store, MetroStore Scanner, apps, countries, information
Windows Store, MetroStore Scanner, apps, countries, information

Learn The Countries Where a Windows Store App is Available

To learn more about each app, click or tap its entry. Additional information is displayed on the top of the page with search results.

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You will see a short description of the app, when it was discovered and last updated, the platforms it is available for and… the answer to our question - the codes of the countries where the app is available. These codes have this format: ab-cd, where ab is the language code language and cd is the country code. For example, en-gb means English - United Kingdom while ro-ro means Romanian - Romania.

Below you can see a non-official copy of the Hulu app that doesn't provide much in terms of real, legitimate content. However, this app is available in all countries.

Windows Store, MetroStore Scanner, apps, countries, information
Windows Store, MetroStore Scanner, apps, countries, information

If you click or tap the official Hulu Plus app, you quickly notice that it is available only in en-us, meaning English - United States.

Windows Store, MetroStore Scanner, apps, countries, information
Windows Store, MetroStore Scanner, apps, countries, information

In case you want to access the official Windows Store page of an app, click or tap Details on the top-right.

Conclusion

As you can see from this guide, MetroStore Scanner is a very useful web version of the Windows Store. With it you can learn a lot about the apps available in the Windows Store. I hope that Microsoft will consider providing a full web-based version of their store.

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