Following the August 19, 2019 release of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition on Steam, existing owners of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition on the Windows Store will need to download a new game client in order to enjoy all the benefits of cross-network play.

This is a completely free upgrade for anyone who already has the game in their Windows Store library.

Full details can be found on the official forums.

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Following the August 19, 2019 release of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition on Steam, existing owners of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition on the Windows Store will need to download a new game client in order to enjoy all the benefits of cross-network play.

This is a completely free upgrade for anyone who already has the game in their Windows Store library.

Full details can be found on the official forums.

There are three common solutions you can try to work around the issue:

🛠 Restart the Microsoft Store app.
If you can’t download or install the game, this is the first thing to try. If the download stops partway through, you may need to restart the app again.

🛠 Ensure that your computer meets the minimum requirements to play the game.
Check to ensure that your system meets the minimum system requirements to run the game. This includes checking your version of Windows 10. If you need to update your version of Windows 10, you can follow the instructions here.

🛠 Verify that you have enough hard drive space to install the game.
You will need at least 20 GB to download and install the game and all of its patches. Verify that you have enough storage space to save all the necessary files.

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Error 0x803F8001 is most commonly attributed to a game permissions problem or missing updates on your computer. There are a few steps you can take to try and work around the issue:

🛠 Restart your computer.
Make sure you power down your computer completely and then restart.

🛠 Make sure you have the latest Windows Updates installed on your system.
If you are missing any critical updates or updates for the Microsoft Store, your apps may not run properly. Be sure to check for any critical Windows Updates.

🛠 Disable your antivirus program and re-launch the game.
Some antivirus programs have been known to interfere with the launch of the game.

🛠 Uninstall the app completely and then reinstall it again.
To uninstall an app, right-click on it and select Uninstall.

🛠 Sign out of your Microsoft accounts.
If you have multiple accounts installed on your Windows machine, sign out of all accounts except the one tied to your purchase of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. Re-launch your store and try to play again.

One successful approach players have discovered is that by installing a free app from the Microsoft Store, it allows Age of Empires: Definitive Edition to finish downloading.

🛠 Install any free app from the Microsoft Store.
Choose any free app from the Microsoft Store and download it. Once it is finished, navigate to your Library and launch Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. You can then uninstall the other app(s) at any time.

If all of the above options fail, try clearing your Windows Store cache to see if it helps:

1. Create a system restore point first.
2. Press the Windows key and type wsreset.exe.
3. Right-click on wsreset.ece and select, “Run as administrator.”
4. A command prompt window will open. Once it is finished, a Windows Store window will pop up with the following confirmation message: “The cache for the Store was cleared. You can now browse the Store for apps.”
5. Reboot your computer and then try downloading Age of Empires: Definitive Edition.
   

If you continue to have a problems, please contact the Microsoft Support Team—making sure to include any steps you took to address the problem.

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There are several potential workarounds to this issue. Please try the following steps to see if they fix the problem:

🛠 Ensure that your computer meets the minimum requirements to play the game.
A majority of crashes upon launching the game can be attributed to playing on a PC that does not meet the recommended requirements. Ensure that your system meets the minimum system requirements to run the game. This includes checking your version of Windows 10. If you need to update your version of Windows 10, you can follow the instructions here.

🛠 Update your display drivers.
If you are playing on old or outdated display drivers, you may encounter issues when trying to launch and play any game. You can check what video card and drivers you are running using the DxDiag command. Once you know what hardware you’re using, you can download the appropriate drivers from the web:

• Nvidia Video Card Drivers: https://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
• ATI Video Card Drivers: https://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
• Intel Drivers: https://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/graphics
• Laptop video drivers are dependent on and obtained from your laptop’s manufacturer.

🛠 Check your antivirus settings.
Some antivirus programs may prevent the game from launching. Check your antivirus settings to make sure Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is not being blocked.

• Add the game to any whitelist feature in your antivirus program. (Note: some antivirus programs may remove the game from the whitelist when it is updated. Double check that the game is still on your whitelist!)

Here are a few particular antivirus programs with known conflicts, as well as resolution steps for each:

• Avast: Age of Empires DE must be added to the program’s whitelist. Steps can be found here.
• AVG: Age of Empires DE must be added to the program’s whitelist. Steps can be found here.
• Bitdefender: Age of Empires DE must be added to the program’s whitelist. Steps can be found here.
• Comodo: disable shellcode injection detection.
• F-secure: Age of Empires DE must be added to the program’s whitelist.
• Trend Micro: Age of Empires DE must be added to the program’s whitelist. Steps can be found here.

If the antivirus requires you to target the game files through “Browse…”, the default file path will be:

• Steam: Program Files(x86) > Steam> steamapps > Common > AoEDE > AoEDE_s.exe
• Windows Store: Program Files > WindowsApps > Microsoft.Darwin_100.1.27805.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe > AoEDE.exe

🛠 Uninstall and reinstall Age of Empires: Definitive Edition.
If you were able to install the game successfully but still encounter crashes in the game, please reinstall the app using these instructions.

🛠 Run the Windows 10 Store App Troubleshooter.
You can run the Windows 10 Store App Troubleshooter to identify and address many different issues with Windows. You can find it here.

🛠 Move the app to a different drive.
For some users, crashes may be attributed to low disk space on the drive where the game is installed. Freeing up space on that drive or moving the game to a different drive will provide additional virtual memory to run the game.

To move your game to a different drive, follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows key and search for Apps & features.
2. Select Age of Empires: Definitive Edition.
3. Click the Move button.
4. Choose a new drive from the drop-down menu.
5. Click Move to automatically move the game to a new home.

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This error usually appears when you are not logged into the Xbox Live services. While this is not required when playing on Steam, it is required to play Age of Empires: Definitive Edition on the Windows Store and to unlock any achievements on your profile.

First, work through these steps to ensure you are connected to the Xbox Live servers:

🛠 Make sure you are connected to the internet.
You will not be able to access multiplayer aspects of the game via the Windows Store if you are offline.

🛠 Sign in to your Xbox Live account via the Xbox app.
You can download and install the Xbox Console Companion app via the Microsoft Store. Once downloaded, log in to the app using the Xbox Live credentials where you purchased the game. (Note: If you don’t have a free Xbox live account, you can create one at account.xbox.com. Make sure to link your new Xbox Live account to the Microsoft account you used to purchase Age of Empires: Definitive Edition.)

If your issue continues, check your firewall software (if you have any) settings:

🛠 Ensure that ports 3478 and 5222 (UDP & TCP) are open and forwarded, then repeat the steps above.

If you are still encountering issues, take a moment to re-register your Windows Store:

1. Create a system restore point first.
2. Press the Windows key and type PowerShell.
3. Right click the PowerShell app and select “Run as administrator.”
4. Type the following command and hit Enter: Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}
5. A command window will briefly open followed by a Windows Store message.
6. Close Windows PowerShell and restart your computer.

You can also run the System File Checker utility tool to identify corrupted Windows system files and replace them:

1. Create a system restore point first.
2. Press the Windows key and type cmd.
3. Right click the Command Prompt app and select “Run as administrator.”
4. Type this sfc /scannow in the command prompt admin window and hit Enter.
5. Once the tool finishes, you can close the command prompt and restart your computer.

If all of the above solutions fail to address the problem, visit the Xbox on Windows 10 support page for additional troubleshooting tips and support.

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There is a windows setting called Background apps that determines whether apps can continue to run and perform access when they aren’t currently focused on your computer. You will want to make sure this setting is enabled so your game does not close:

1. Press the Windows key and type Background apps.
2. At the top of the Background apps settings window, make sure the Let apps run in the background is turned On.
3. Under Choose which apps can run in the background, make sure your Age of Empires: Definitive Edition setting is turned On.

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You can! Just follow the steps in the article linked below to play your apps in offline mode:

• Play games offline on Windows 10 using Offline mode

Within Age of Empires: Definitive Edtiion are a set of Accessibility options that determine what aspects of the game are narrated. This is easy to fix:

1. Launch Age of Empires: Definitive Edition.
2. From the main menu, select Options and then Settings.
3. Under the Accessibility header, un-check the Menus, Chat, and Game boxes.
4. Click OK to save your settings.

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If you are playing on the Windows Store version of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, there are a few troubleshooting steps you can take:

• Make sure you are signed in to Xbox Live before launching the game.
• If you signed in to any other PC’s with the same account, make sure you’ve signed out before playing the game on a new PC.
• Launch the Xbox App prior to launching the game. Make sure you are able to sign in to the App before launching the game.
• Try signing in over at account.xbox.com/. If you are unable to sign in, contact Xbox Live support.

If may be that you’ve already expanded the Multiplayer menu without knowing. If you can see the Lobby Browser, Quickmatch, Create Game, and Leaderboard buttons, the menu is already open!

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Although Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is built to run on any PC that meets the minimum specifications, not all game settings are suited for every machine. If you are experiencing performance issues while playing, try the following steps:

🛠 Ensure that your computer meets the minimum requirements to play the game.
Check to ensure that your system meets the minimum system requirements to run the game. This includes checking your version of Windows 10. If you need to update your version of Windows 10, you can follow the instructions here.

🛠 Run the “Recommended” display settings for your system.

• Right-click on your desktop and select Display Settings.
• Select Advanced Display Settings.
• Select Recommended.

🛠 Close any Apps running in the background.
If your system does meet the minimum requirements, you may have too many apps running in the background. Close all other apps before launching Age of Empires: DE to ensure your system can successfully run the game.

🛠 Reduce the population cap.
High-population games can cause performance issues on some machines. Experiment by playing a game at the default population cap of 50; if that runs smoothly, you may experiment with higher numbers.

🛠 Reduce the number of players in your game.
Games with a higher number of players naturally have a higher population, and each human player you add increases the strain on the P2P connection. Try a 1v1 game against an AI, then gradually increase the number of AI and/or human players until you get a sense for what your PC and internet connection can handle.

🛠 Set your region when creating a multiplayer lobby.
Distance might make the heart grow fonder, but it doesn’t do great things for your P2P connections!

You can also find more information on how to optimize your PC settings in the Tips for Optimizing your Age of Empires Experience section, above.

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If you are having trouble connecting to LAN games, go to your firewall settings and allow incoming communication on TCP Port 8888, as well as Port 3478 (UDP & TCP) and Port 5222 (UDP & TCP).

The best way to report an issue is via the Windows Feedback Hub, where you can add a new issue or upvote a report if you are experiencing a similar issue. Here’s how to launch the Feedback Hub:

1. Press the Windows key + F to automatically open the Hub.
2. Alternatively, you can press the Windows key and type “Feedback” in the search bar.

If you received an error code or encountered a bug, type it into the “Search Feedback” box to see if the problem already exists and is known.

• If the problem IS known, we’re already working on it! Click on the UPVOTE button before you leave; this helps us figure out how many people are experiencing the same problem.
• If the problem is NOT known, click “Add new feedback”, and fill out the requested information accordingly. When filing feedback, please place the game title in the “Summarize your issue” field, and include steps to reproduce the issue under the “Give us more details” field. This will assist us in locating your feedback.

Thank you for taking the time to help improve Age of Empires: Definitive Edition for everyone.