I got a Refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad T580 recently and installed Windows 11 23H2 on the machine. After setting up the machine, I decided to install the Arc browsers beta client for Windows as I am a beta tester. However, I kept running into the “This app package is not supported for installation by App Installer because it uses certain restricted capabilities” error and wasn’t sure what the problem was.
As anybody would do, I went online to get answers, I read some Windows forums and blogs and they all shared the same solution which by the way were pretty easy to follow. But did I try any of them out? No, I didn’t.
So, how did I fix the Windows App Installer error? Continue reading to find out.
What Causes This Error Message?
When attempting to install certain apps using the App Installer utility in Windows, you may encounter this error for a few reasons:
- The app package is corrupted or damaged
- The package is not digitally signed by the developer
- Your Windows OS lacks certain system files needed to process the installation
- There are permission issues with the AppData folder location
These lead Windows to not recognize the app package as valid for installation through its standard App Installer tool.
In my case, the reason I was getting the “This App Package is Not Supported For Installation by App Installer” error was that the fresh installation of Windows 11 23H2 I did was missing some system files required to process the installation.
How Did I Fix The “This App Package Is Not Supported for Installation?”
I was able to fix the Windows App Installer error by updating the Windows App Installer App from the Microsoft Store. If you’re facing the same error, you can try updating the App Installer by following the steps below.
- Launch the Microsoft Store App from your Windows taskbar.
- In the store, click on the library icon at the bottom left corner of the store app. This will display the list of all the Microsoft Store Apps you have installed on your PC.
- At the top right corner, you’ll see a Get Updates button located at the top right corner of the app. Click on it and Windows will run a scan to see if there are updates available for your apps.
- Once the scan is completed and there are updates available, the updating process will begin automatically.
- If you don’t want to update all the apps, you can manually cancel the downloads you don’t want and leave the ones that are important to you to update, which is what I did since I don’t use most of the pre-installed apps.
- Let the Microsoft App Installer update download and install.
- Once the updating process has been completed, close the Microsoft Store App and try installing the app that was giving you the error again.
That’s it; the Windows Installer App error should now be gone. If after following the above process, you’re still facing the error, try the alternative methods below to fix the error.
Enable Developer Mode on Windows 11
For security reasons, Windows typically restricts downloading applications from untrusted third-party sources. However, if you are certain that the particular app package and download source are reliable, enabling Developer Mode can allow sideloading of that application.
To enable the developer mode on your Windows PC, follow the steps below:
- Open the settings app on your PC.
- Navigate to the system section and scroll until you find the “For Developers” option. Click on it.
- In the “For Developers” section, toggle the enable Developer Mode from off to on.
That’s it; you can now retry the app installation process and hopefully it it fixed.
Conclusion
Following these troubleshooting steps should resolve the “not supported for installation by app installer” error in most cases when attempting to install an app package file on Windows. Check that the package isn’t damaged, enable sideloading or, try downloading a fresh copy of the app.
Hopefully, you can now get those app packages installed smoothly! Let us know in the comments if you have any other issues getting app packages to install on your Windows device.
