PC gamers who have installed games via Xbox Play Anywhere on their Windows 11 or Windows 10 gaming PCs are reportedly flooding online forums with the question of where are the xbox play anywhere files. This post aims to answer this question.
Where are Xbox Play Anywhere files located on PC?
Xbox Play Anywhere games can be purchased from the Xbox Store, Windows Store, or via digital code at participating retailers. Generally, files for games or apps you downloaded from the Windows Store will only go directly to a specific folder or location on your storage device. To check where the games are located, you can go to the following path:
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps
To check the configuration files of each game you downloaded from the Windows Store, you can go to the directory path below:
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Packages
However, the directory for any of the Xbox Play Anywhere games is hidden, and even if you manage to find the hidden folder, you don’t have access to it. For some players, they were able to bypass this crash somehow simply by navigating to the directory path below:
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\StudioMDHR.20872A364DAA1_1.1.4.2_x64__tm1s6a95559gt
Read: Where are Windows Store apps installed and how to access the folder?
But it seems that the above location is very specific and probably doesn’t apply to everyone. So if it doesn’t work for you, you can follow the step-by-step instructions below to search the Windows registry to find the location of the particular game you want. For this post, we will be using the Cuphead game as an example.
- Open Registry Editor.
- In the Registry Editor, click Ctrl+F or click on the Edit tab, then click Find.
- In the popup search box, type cup head in it find that field.
- Click on the find next or press Enter to start the search. Leave the Keys, Values, and Datachecked boxes and Matches the entire string only unchecked checkbox.
- When the log search is complete, some log files are displayed and highlighted with the word “cuphead” for each file that it references.
- The log file you are looking for is called PackageRootFolder and you should see your file location for the game in the data column. In case you don’t see this particular log file, perform the search again. You may have to do this a couple of times.
- Once found, double-click the PackageRootFolder registry file to open its properties.
- now press Ctrl+C to copy the already highlighted location data to the clipboard.
- Exit Registry Editor.
- Next, open File Explorer.
- Press Ctrl+D to change the navigation path and highlight the address bar.
- Then press Ctrl+V to paste the copied location into the search bar and press Enter.
Read: How to perform WindowsApps folder cleanup
This will now open the folder with all the files related to Cuphead, including the .exe archive. You may not be able to view or edit most of the files in this game location due to insufficient permissions. However, you can take ownership of any file and see if you can modify it.
Let us know in the comment section below if this post was helpful.
Related Post: How to find where a program is installed in Windows
Where is Xbox game data stored?
Your Xbox game data is stored both on your console’s hard drive and in the cloud. Essentially, to prevent data loss when you use a friend or family member’s console, or even when you switch to a new console, Xbox keeps your game data in sync; this requires you to have a stable connection. Game saves that you have in the cloud will be automatically uploaded when you open the game only if you are connected to the Internet. Cloud saves are written over the last save you made and previous saves will not be downloadable.
How to find the file location of Xbox Play Anywhere games on PC?
If, for example, you want to clean up your save files for Xbox Play Anywhere games on your Windows 11/10 PC, the only way to do it successfully is to find the folder containing the files on your actual hard drive and then delete it. . We have in this post, as discussed above, clearly identified where the save files exist and how you can easily find the location.
now read: Change the default location where the Xbox app installs games.
