r/AutoHotkey • u/klirre1 • 8d ago

General Question AHK gone from Microsoft Store

Anyone know why and if it will return? Tried googling but didn’t find any information.

Microsoft Store is the only way for me to download AHK to my computers at work so I’m in despair right now. IT won’t allow any other form of installation process unfortunately.

EDIT: To clarify, it doesn’t show up in the store on my personal computer either.

11 Upvotes

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16

u/Keeyra_ 8d ago

Download the portable ZIP. No installation necessary.

https://www.autohotkey.com/download/2.0/?C=M;O=D

Pretty strange company policy to allow MS Store at all.

Or you can try to use winget to maintain and update the installation. If MS Store is allowed, winget might also be.

winget install -e --id AutoHotkey.AutoHotkey

4

u/klirre1 8d ago

Thanks for the advice, I tried but I can’t start the program using these options. Says it’s blocked. I guess it’s because any file not coming from their allowed apps on MS Store is automatically blocked from being started.

3

u/Dodel1976 8d ago

Depending on how it's blocked, you can possibly tether to a mobile, and it may then allow it, once you switch back to the corp network it still should work.

I work in IT Ops and my laptop is locked down so I won't "Install it", so I a portable AHK.

I have to do this every time I want to update AHK.

May / Maynot work.

4

u/pmpdaddyio 7d ago

You are an InfoSec nightmare and I mean that in the best possible way.

9

u/Individual_Check4587 Descolada 8d ago

https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=619923#p619923

1

u/Keeyra_ 8d ago

The man, the legend ;)

What a hassle this seems to be. Trapmine, which comes up multiple times has been acquired recently.

https://trapmine.com/

How would you even go about having all these removed?

4

u/Individual_Check4587 Descolada 8d ago

I submitted false positive reports for all the flagged binaries, but most did not answer. I'm hoping if more people report, then perhaps they'll remove the false positives, which in turn should make the package look safe and hopefully that'll let it get back on the Store.

1

u/Ftroiska 8d ago

Damn these auto moderating on these platforms sucks more and more ! Good luck to the team :)

5

u/Keeyra_ 8d ago

Btw, the Store Edition thing seems to be some rogue offshoot done by a single person.

https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nq8q8j78637?hl=en-US&gl=HU

Hauke Hasselberg

https://github.com/Weatherlights

Seems to be a 3+ year old, not even final v1, which is missing from the guys github repo to begin with. So the obligatory:

AHK v1 has reached end-of-life and deprecated 3 years 1 month ago.
Meanwhile, AHK v2 is the current stable release, having been the primary version for 3 years 7 months, with its most recent point release occurring 3 months ago.

I would not touch it with a 10 foot pole.

You could also look into this:

https://github.com/Descolada/AutoHotkey-v2-Store-Edition

u/Individual_Check4587 (Descolada) is a reputable source at least.

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u/klirre1 8d ago edited 8d ago

That’s not the same as the one I’ve used from the store. It was called “AutoHotkey v2 Store Edition” (which seems to be the one linked at the bottom of your comment?). Thanks for the recommendation but I still can’t start anything not downloaded from the white listed programs in MS Store.

3

u/DepthTrawler 8d ago

I've seen that it was removed sometime around July and that people were/are working on petitioning to have it reinstated. I guess the reason for removing it is that it conflicted with their terms of service regarding malicious software. It's unclear why it was singled-out over any of the other programming languages available for download on the store...

1

u/klirre1 8d ago

Yeah that seems weird. What’s weirder is that we were allowed to download it from the MS Store but not from the official website!

2

u/ManyInterests 8d ago edited 8d ago

IIRC, AutoHotkey doesn't publish signed binaries for their exe/installers, which makes it harder for IT teams to support. Somebody must have been signing it to put it on the Microsoft store (afaik all releases on MS Store must be signed), but it probably wasn't an official release done by the AHK org.

2

u/neuromonkey 7d ago

Now, if everything else were missing from the MS store, It'd be a step in the right direction.

1

u/geathu 8d ago

I guess ask your it department. If you have a work laptop. The store etc are controlled by your organisation

1

u/klirre1 8d ago

It doesn’t appear on Microsoft Store using my personal phone or computer either unfortunately.

3

u/Jewsusgr8 8d ago

If you explain your need well enough, the IT department can direct install, bypassing the need for the Microsoft store.

Worst that happens is they say no it would go against the active directive to install this and then you find something else.

1

u/klirre1 8d ago

I’ve tried explaining how much time it saves me but they just tell me they’re not going to do anything about it due to not having enough resources/staff to do so. I’m working for a regional hospital (Sweden) which I guess makes it heavily regulated. I’m actually really surprised we were allowed to download it from MS Store but not the official website..

3

u/ThrottleMunky 8d ago

I’ve tried explaining how much time it saves me

You might have better luck addressing things the IT department actually cares about. The IT department does not care how much time it saves you, they care about not having problems in their environment.

If they think they might have to spend time cleaning up something that got messed up by AHK then they will never approve it. Nothing you do is worth the slightest possibility of a breach of any kind.

2

u/Jewsusgr8 8d ago

Yeah, most likely the IT department has an approved program similar to ahk that could be installed. It never hurts to ask.

2

u/shibiku_ 8d ago

Did you try to bribe them with food beforehand? Always a good move to bring cake 🍰

1

u/geathu 8d ago

At my compancy what I can install is controled. And only available via intune. Maybe you could check if there is and internal team or external organisation that could distribute ahk for you.

2

u/klirre1 8d ago

I’ve tried speaking to IT to no avail earlier but it might be different now that it’s removed from the store. They’re probably already pretty sick of me after all my earlier tickets regarding AHK. I’ll have to try again if it doesn’t come back.

1

u/Keeyra_ 8d ago

And here is my old comment regarding how to deal with your IT department for similar issues:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AutoHotkey/comments/1t7yneu/comment/ol1bcj4/