Raven

A free, open-source alternative Microsoft Store client for Windows

Raven is a modern, native Windows application that serves as a fully-featured alternative to the Microsoft Store. It can do everything the official store does — search, download, install, and update apps — while also adding powerful capabilities like sideloading external UWP/MSIX packages, exporting Store apps for offline use, and bandwidth-saving delta downloads.

Built with WinUI 3 and .NET 10, Raven delivers a clean, fluent UI that feels right at home on Windows 10 and 11.

• Store Search — search the Microsoft Store catalog directly from the title bar with real-time auto-suggest (including app icons and titles).
• Advanced Search — filter and query apps with more granular control over results.
• App Details — full app detail pages with descriptions, screenshots, version info, and dependency listings.
• Market & Language Selection — browse the Store as it appears in any region/language combination.

• Download Store Apps — download any app package directly from Microsoft's CDN for offline installation or archival.
• Delta Downloads — save bandwidth with intelligent block-level delta downloads. Only changed blocks are fetched using BlockMap diffing, drastically reducing download sizes for updates.
• Export Packages — download .appx, .msix, .appxbundle, and .msixbundle files for external use, backup, or redistribution to other machines.
• Download Manager — a full download queue with progress tracking, pause/resume, and status animations.

• Install Store Apps — install downloaded packages directly, just like the Microsoft Store.
• Sideload External Packages — install .appx, .msix, .appxbundle, or .msixbundle files from anywhere — not just the Store. Drag-and-drop or browse to select.
• Dependency Resolution — automatic detection and installation of required framework dependencies.
• Force Install — option to forcibly reinstall or downgrade packages when a newer version is already present.

• Update Checking — scans all installed Store-signed packaged apps and compares them against the latest available versions.
• Delta Updates — applies block-level differential updates to minimize download sizes.
• Batch & Individual Updates — update all apps at once or pick and choose which ones to update.
• Version Comparison — intelligently determines the latest available version per architecture and OS build.

• Unpackaged Deployment — runs as a standalone .exe without requiring MSIX packaging or Windows App Installer.
• Theme Support — light, dark, and system-default themes with seamless switching.
• Structured Logging — separate log files for runtime events, installations, and crashes via Serilog.
• Localization-Ready — UI strings use a resource-based localization system (x:Uid).
• Self-Update Check — checks GitHub for newer releases of Raven itself.

• Windows 10 Version 2004, Build 19041+
• Windows App SDK Runtime (Not needed for self-contained)

• Statisfy all system requirements (excluding runtimes if running self contained version)
• Download the latest version of Raven from releases according to your system architecture.
• Extract the contents of the zip and run raven.exe.
• If you encounter a false antivirus positive, download raven_cert.zip from releases, extract the contents and install raven.cer or run install_raven_cert.bat.

• Install winget and run

winget install mjishnu.raven

• If you encounter a false antivirus positive, download raven_cert.zip from releases, extract the contents and install raven.cer or run install_raven_cert.bat.
• Search for the raven in startmenu and run

Raven follows the MVVM pattern and uses dependency injection via Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting.

Raven.slnx
├── Raven/                    # WinUI 3 Application (UI layer)
│   ├── Views/                # XAML pages: Shell, Search, App Details,
│   │                         #   Downloads, Installations, Updates, Settings
│   ├── ViewModels/           # MVVM view models (CommunityToolkit.Mvvm)
│   ├── Services/             # App-level services: navigation, downloads,
│   │                         #   package installation, update checking
│   ├── Helpers/              # Utilities: delta downloads, BlockMap parsing,
│   │                         #   download URL resolution, version comparison
│   ├── Models/               # Data models: AppInfo, DownloadItem, UpdateItem
│   ├── Contracts/            # Service interfaces
│   ├── Layouts/              # Custom WinUI layouts (VirtualGridLayout)
│   ├── Styles/               # XAML resource dictionaries
│   └── Strings/              # Localized string resources (en-us)
│
├── Raven.Updater/            # Self-update helper executable
│   └── Program.cs            # Copies update payload and relaunches Raven
│
└── StoreListings/            # Git submodule — Microsoft Store API wrapper
    └── StoreListings.Library/
        ├── StoreEdgeFDProduct.cs   # Store product queries
        ├── DCATPackage.cs          # Dependency catalog lookups
        └── FE3Handler.cs           # Package download link resolution

• .NET 10 SDK
• Visual Studio 2026 with the following workloads:
  • .NET Desktop Development
  • Windows App SDK / WinUI Development
  • Windows 10 SDK (26100)
  • Desktop development with C++ (the MSVC linker is needed to publish, since Raven publishes as NativeAOT)

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/mjishnu/Raven.git
cd Raven

If you've already cloned without --recurse-submodules, initialize the submodule manually:

git submodule update --init --recursive

From Visual Studio:

1. Open Raven.slnx
2. Set Raven as the startup project
3. Select your target platform (x64, x86, or arm64)
4. Press F5 to build and run

From the command line:

dotnet build Raven.slnx -c Debug -p:Platform=x64
dotnet run --project Raven -c Debug

Contributions are welcome! Here's how you can help:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a branch for your feature or fix (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m "Add my feature")
4. Push to your branch (git push origin feature/my-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

• Use x:Uid-based localized strings in XAML — no hardcoded text
• Follow existing MVVM patterns and DI conventions

• StoreListings for the Microsoft Store API wrapper.
• Alt App Installer the predecessor to this project.

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 — see the LICENSE file for details.