Today I was notified, that it is no longer possible to submit updates to my user-friendly Ethereum miner to Windows Store due to the new Microsoft policies.

What a shame.

UPD. You can now reinstall miner from Lost Tech Downloads

The whole idea of distributing it through the Store was for users to have a safe place to discover and download a cryptocurrency miner, as opposed to looking for one on random Internet forums with real risk to get malware in the package. And yet Microsoft banned miners from their store for “security”. Ironically, that’s the same policy section, that bans 3rd-party browser engines.

By banning miners, Microsoft is probably trying to prevent employees in companies worldwide from using corporate hardware for personal profit. But by doing so it also hurts consumers, who now have to take the above mentioned risks on themselves if they want to adopt this tech at home (my wife uses it as a “free” room heater). They could certainly just have a special mark on the app, and have a group policy denying the installation, that enterprises could enable, rather than denying the access to everyone.

Now I’ll have to spent a few days developing an alternative distribution system, and probably will loose a significant chunk of existing users. IMHO, that policy will hurt overall tech adoption too.

UPDATE: Miner is available from Lost Tech website

Download from Lost Tech Downloads

If you had one installed from Store, backup

C:\Users\<YOUR USER>\AppData\Local\Packages\LostTechLLC.MineETH_kdyhxf5sz30e2\LocalState\Mine.config

Then uninstall the Store one, and install the new one.

Copy your config backup and overwrite the new config location:

AppData\Local\Packages\LostTechLLC.MineETH_aptdcfzknqkda\LocalState\Mine.config