This blog will be about securing the forgotten Microsoft Store. The Microsoft App Store is an ideal place to download Spotify/Netflix or games on a Company Owned device. Of course, you want to block or limit access.
In my opinion, you will need to start making use of all the features of the Company Portal and start distributing apps with it.
Are you going to block access to the Microsoft Store?/Are you going to restrict apps that can be installed? or are you only going to show the private company store? And what about installing App packages manually, how are you going to deal with those packages?
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I am going to divide this blog into 7 parts
We will begin with the option to only show the private store and nothing more. I guess it's the most restrictive solution you have.
It only requires a CSP to do so.
./User/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/ApplicationManagement/RequirePrivateStoreOnly
Or if you prefer the Settings Catalog (Duh… of course, you do). Just search Require Private Store Only and enable it.
But beware of the licensing requirements. The RequirePrivateStoreOnly needs a Windows 10 Education or Enterprise edition to function.
Testing it!
When you take a look at the Microsoft Store, you will notice only your Private/Store Company Microsoft Store apps are available.
2. Limit Applications
If you don't have the proper licensing but you still want to restrict access to the Microsoft store, you could configure Applocker
Applocker 2 7 0 6 Download
To set up Applocker, you need still to create a custom CSP Rule. Configuring Applocker with the settings catalog still isn't supported.
OMA-URI:
./Vendor/MSFT/AppLocker/ApplicationLaunchRestrictions/StoreAppsGroup/StoreApps/Policy
Content of the XML
Looking at the XML above, you will notice I am using FIlePublisherRules to make sure only Microsoft Apps may be installed. All other Apps will fail to install.
When deploying this Applocker policy to all devices, you could check if the new Applocker policy has been applied by taking a look at this Applocker folder c:WindowsSystem32AppLockerMDM
Testing it!
After you are sure the Applocker policy is applied, you can try to download Spotify in the Microsoft Store. It will not even download nor it will install it!
Also, take a look at the 'Store Event log'. To translate it: 'Packet distribution is blocked by a policy'.
Also downloading and installing the App Package manually will be restricted
When you don't want to go down the road to limit access to the store, you could also block access to the Microsoft App Store. But you have to ask yourself a question: Do you really want to block the Microsoft App store?
BEWARE!!!:
When you prevent access to the whole Microsoft Store for your whole device instead of your users, all of your Modern Apps are not going to be updated because they can only be updated via the Store or Windows Updates for Business, not with existing software management solutions or WSUS. Does this sound like a security/vulnerability problem to me? Yes, it does!
Device
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindowsStoreRemoveWindowsStore REG_DWORD 1
User:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindowsStoreRemoveWindowsStore REG_DWORD 1
If you enable this setting, access to the Store application is denied. As mentioned earlier access to the Store is required for installing app updates.
Still, reading? You could configure this setting by configuring an administrative Template. Beware! This policy is not going to work when you have a Windows 10 Pro license, you will need enterprise!
Testing it!
When preventing access to the Microsoft Store is not enough, we also could remove the possibility to search the whole Microsoft Store? Let's look at this administrative template: 'Turn off access to the store'
When reading the above text, we will know when we configure this option the end-user will not have the possibility to 'open with' anymore when they try to open a file with an unhandled file type. HUH? So turning off access to the Microsoft Store will only remove the possibility to search the Microsoft Store when you have a file with an unknown file protocol?
To test it, I have created a simple file with a file extension of . ubk
As shown above, no Microsoft Store…… but changing it back to .txt will return the possibility to search the Microsoft Store.
So please skip this one!… The name Microsoft has given it doesn't do what you would expect when you are reading the title: Turn off access to the Microsoft Store. But I needed to mention this policy because I think it's a weird one.
If you want to step it up a notch, you could also remove all access to the Microsoft Store and all installed applications.
Unfortunately, there is no GUI method to configure this setting. Luckily there is a CSP available. (beware of the Enterprise requirement!)
Tipard pdf converter 3 1 30 amp. OMA-Uri:
./User/Vendor/MSFT/Policy/Config/ApplicationManagement/DisableStoreApps
Data Type : Integer
Value: 1
When the CSP is deployed to your device you could try to open the Microsoft Store.It will give you a nice error message
BEWARE: It also blocks the Company Portal App! Check out this blog to read the whole story behind it!
Now we have made sure the Microsoft App Store is limited or blocked we need to take a look at how to prevent manually Appx installations because they don't need the store to install Apps? Of course, when you have configured Applocker, the applocker rules will also be applied when you want to install the appx files manually
If you enable this policy, non-administrators will be unable to initiate the installation of Windows app packages.
But beware: All users will still be able to install Windows app packages via the Microsoft Store!!
You can configure this setting by also creating a new settings catalog: Block Non Admin user Install
Okay, it looks kinda weird you need to switch the flip to Allow… but reading the information will show you what to choose!
'If you enable this policy, non-administrators will be unable to initiate the installation of Windows app packages.'
'If you disable or do not configure this policy, all users will be able to initiate the installation of Windows app packages'
TESTING IT
Download an Appx Package
Why block access to the Microsoft Store, when you can manage it? Blocking access to the Microsoft store is not the way to go in my opinion!!!!
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Go back into your GPO and go to Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Application Control Policies > AppLocker. Right-click on AppLocker and choose Properties. Check the box next to Configured for each area of AppLocker that you'll be testing and change the pull-down to Audit only. This will log all of the rule results to the Event Log without actually blocking any applications.
AppLocker - Properties Audit
I like to keep my AppLocker rules in a dedicated GPO. If you're setting up AppLocker the same way, you can now link your GPO to an OU for testing. At this point, I haven't configured what to do with the Application Identity Service (AppIDSvc). When I tested initially, I applied the GPO to a few volunteers' computers (with the rules in Audit mode) and manually started AppIDSvc remotely and left the Startup type as Manual. I asked the users to let me know if they rebooted their computers so I could also restart AppIDSvc. With the rules in Audit mode, nothing should be blocked. But why take anything to chance? Should a user have problems with AppLocker, simply rebooting will disable AppLocker.
Now, you wait. After a few days, you can check the Event Log to see what's getting blocked. Microsoft has a dedicated area of the Event Log just for AppLocker that makes things easy. In the Event Viewer, go to Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > AppLocker and you should see 'EXE and DLL' and 'MSI and Script.' You should be able to skim through these events and see Warnings where things would be blocked by AppLocker if the rules were not in Audit. On my test system, you'll see that the user ATLtestuser ran Google Chrome that is installed in the user's profile in AppData. Since I'm looking to block applications from users' profiles, this is the expected behavior I'm looking for.
Pdf to image pro 3 3 19. AppLocker - AppLocker Event Log blocked app
After you've gotten comfortable with your rules, you can move on to enforcing them. First off, I still haven't set the Application Identity Service (AppIDSvc) settings anywhere in Group Policy. The AppIDSvc service is disabled by default. By starting the service manually on the client computer, the end user has the fallback position of rebooting to disable AppLocker should the rules break something. Go back into the GPO and go to Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Application Control Policies, right-click on AppLocker, and choose Properties. Make sure Configured is still checked and change the pull-down to Enforce Rules. Since we're testing the policy, you can run a quick gpupdate on the client to refresh the Group Policy.
AppLocker - AppLocker Enforce Rules
Once you've made sure that AppIDSvc is running and still set to Manual, you're back to waiting. The good news is that now your customer is going to see the block messages in addition to the entry you'll see in the Event Log. The end user will be told that, 'This program is blocked by group policy. For more information, contact your system administrator.'
AppLocker - End user message for blocked app
Back in the Event Viewer, you'll see that the Warnings are now Errors that AppLocker is enforcing rules.
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AppLocker - Event Viewer application blocked
Applocker 2 7 0 60
You should now be at the point where you have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't work for your AppLocker rules. In the next, and final, part of this series, I'll discuss the best way to enable the Application Identity Service for your computers and some of the common issues I've seen during an AppLocker implementation.
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- AppLocker tutorial - Part 3: Testing
