is there life without Microsoft Store?

[Curt]

I was wondering why on earth PhotoScape never was updated. Curiosity killed the cat, but I finally dared to click the central PhotoScape button, taking me to the homepage (http://www.photoscape.org). I have tried a couple of times before to click it, but each time felt it had to be wrong, because it would open Internet Explorer!

This time I accepted to be taken for a ride with Internet Explorer 11, and clicked my way to the homepage of PhotoScape X: http://x.photoscape.org/

FUN AND EASY PHOTO EDITOR FOR MAC AND WINDOWS 10

-PhotoScape X

I have fumbled and stumbled for quite a while, (I even wrote them, but received no answer), but it looks to me as if there is no way to get PhotoScape X (for Windows) without first installing Microsoft Store and all that $#IT.

Is that right? No, of course it is not right, it is totally wrong, but I meant, is it true? Is it impossible to run a program that was designed for The Beast, eh, for The Store, if I don't have The Store on my PC? I would like to stay out of it, but I think I also would like to have a copy of PhotoScape X. Can such a program even launch without The Store?

And yes, I know, there are already several beasts by different names, on my PC, but that's another store, eh, another story.

[Shades]

Follow this link for the installer on download.cnet.com.

This link is available on the photoscape website itself. That is, if you are not hell bent on getting Photoscape X. Which is not specifically mentioned on their website, only when downloading for Windows 10. If you take a look at their changelog page, the only versions that are mentioned are ....well, not the X version. So, I would just use the installer if you want a MS Store free experience.

[tomos]

  very good post Curt
I'm still on win 7 myself...

[Curt]

sorry, Shades, Re-reading my initial post, I can now see that I've failed to point out that I already am using the old PhotoScape 3.7. I should also have taken more time to first realize and then to point out that PhotoScape and PhotoScape X are two quite different programs. When I started this thread, I thought X was an updated version of 3.7. Only now do I understand that PhotoScape was abandoned (not just "not updated") at version 3.7 maybe four years ago, and PhotoScape X version 1 was first launched in 2012, and version 2 was available in Mac App Store October 2013 and is now at version 2.8.3 and is available for both Windows and for Mac - but only in these disgusting Stores.

However, the two stores have now made me certain that this X is not for me.

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Thank you, Tom.
You are of course already aware that Windows 10 can be set up to look exactly like an updated version of Windows 7