This is a question that has come up on numerous occasions when developers have found issues with their Windows 8.1 apps when they run them on a Windows 10 PC and was recently solved for a project we at Black Marble have on the Windows Store by our development director and myself. It isn’t clearly obvious how to do this through the Windows Store submission process but after stumbling across a section for Windows 10 device families, we guessed this is where our answer was.
So, in the first section of the submission process, ‘Pricing and availability’, there is a collapsed section called ‘Windows 10 device families’ which you can see in the image at the top of this post.
If you expand this with the ‘Show options’ button, you’ll find a couple of options for currently supported Windows 10 device families in the form of check boxes. If you uncheck all of these and turn on the ‘Require your permission before making this app available to any future device families’ option, you’ll be all set for hiding your current application from the Windows Store for Windows 10 devices.
Please note, this will only hide it on Windows 10 for new users. If your app has been previously downloaded from the Windows Store from an 8.1 machine, the user who downloaded it can still download it to their Windows 10 device.
In this case, you’d be best to provide an update to the app, either in the form of a Windows 8.1 update explaining a new version is on the way, or just working through it and releasing your app for Windows 10 when it is ready.
I’d highly recommend if the issues in your app have only been found in Windows 10 that you follow these steps to try and reduce the frustration of your users. If, however, you’re simply removing it due to a new version coming for Windows 10, I’d recommend that you don’t follow these steps for hiding the app and just release an update with a message that tells your users that a new version for Windows 10 is on the way!
Keep coding!