Minecraft Windows Edition says its downloading, never downloads.

Thanks for the update. In my case, I performed a full cleanup of the Windows Store and Minecraft. Let’s try the following step-by-step process. If you encounter any errors, please post a screenshot so I can check what we might have missed:

1. Search for PowerShell, right-click it, and select Run as administrator. Then copy and paste these commands:

Get-AppxPackage *MinecraftUWP* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Microsoft.XboxApp* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *GamingServices* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Microsoft.XboxIdentityProvider* | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *Microsoft.StorePurchaseApp* | Remove-AppxPackage

2. Next, remove leftover registry entries:

reg delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\GamingServices" /f
reg delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\GamingServicesNet" /f

3. Restart your computer.
4. After restarting, open PowerShell as administrator again and run these commands:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.WindowsStore | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Foreach { 
    if ($_.Name -notlike "*Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller*") { 
        try { 
            Remove-AppxPackage -Package $_.PackageFullName -AllUsers -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue 
        } catch {} 
    } 
}

5. Finally, run this command to reinstall the Desktop App Installer:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

6. After that, you can reinstall the critical platform apps by running these commands, which will open the Microsoft Store directly to the right pages:

• Gaming Services: Start-Process "ms-windows-store://pdp/?productid=9MWPM2CQNLHN"
• Xbox Identity Provider: Start-Process "ms-windows-store://pdp/?productid=9WZDNCRD1HKW"
• Minecraft: Start-Process "ms-windows-store://pdp/?productid=9NBLGGH2JHXJ"

What we are doing here is a full wipe and rebuild of everything Minecraft depends on:

→ First, we remove Minecraft, the Xbox app, Gaming Services, and their login components. → Then, we force-delete leftover files and registry entries that survive normal uninstalls. → Next, we reset the Microsoft Store and all its apps, clearing any junk that might block installations. → After that, we reinstall the Store’s internal installer so your system can properly manage apps again. → Finally, we manually reinstall Gaming Services, Xbox Identity Provider, and Minecraft from scratch.

This process clears hidden issues and gives you a clean slate to work with.