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Part 3: Restoring the LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor App on Windows

By Asha Seshan - ROBOTMAK3R

Summary: This blog is written by Sizlaq and is about how he restored the LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor Windows app using an archived Appx installer and a backup of the app’s downloaded content.

Important note: The files linked in this post are external archive downloads for the LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor app and its related content. LEGO MINDSTORMS, LEGO Education and Robot Inventor are LEGO Group products/trademarks. Use these downloads only where you are legally entitled to do so and only for legitimate preservation, repair, education or personal restore purposes. I do not own the LEGO app or content, and the links are provided as a convenience for people trying to restore a legacy installation. Download and run archived software at your own risk, and scan files before installing them.

Why these backups mattered

The reason I started looking into this was simple: LEGO had announced that the LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor apps were being discontinued after 1st June.

That raised two separate risks. The first risk was that the app itself might become difficult to download in the future. The second, and more awkward, risk was that even if the app could still be installed, the in-app downloadable content might disappear or stop downloading.

For this to be useful as a real restore, I did not want to only archive the installer. I wanted to prove that I could start from a clean device or machine, install the app, restore the saved app data, and end up with the tutorials, builds and downloaded content already available inside the app.

That became the aim of the whole exercise: not just “can I install the app?”, but “can I restore the app to a usable state without depending on LEGO’s download servers still being available?”

Other platform restore guides

This restore was also done for the other platforms:

Update these placeholder links once the other blog posts have been published.

Why Windows was the final platform

Windows was the final platform I worked through because it had its own slightly different problem. The app could be installed from an archived .appx package, but that still did not solve the bigger question of whether the downloaded app content could be restored as well.

I wanted the Windows restore to work in the same way as the Android and macOS restores: start with the files in the archive, install the app, restore the local app data, and end up with the content already available inside the app.

There is also a separate Windows download investigation that explains the issue I saw with the Windows app trying to download content from the wrong place. This post stays focused on the restore process itself.

Windows download investigation post

What I was trying to achieve

The aim was to make the Windows restore repeatable for someone starting from a folder of archived files.

That meant the package needed to contain:

  1. the Windows app installer;
  2. the app-data/content backup;

The important point is that the app-data backup already contains the downloaded content. The restore instructions should not rely on the app downloading more content after installation.

Understanding the two parts of the Windows restore

The Windows restore is built around two files.

The first is the Appx installer:

TheLEGOGroup.LEGOMINDSTORMSInventor_10.5.2.0_x64__m36angppq0g76.Appx

The second is the app-data/content backup:

TheLEGOGroup.LEGOMINDSTORMSInventor_m36angppq0g76.zip

The backup zip contains the app data folder that needs to be merged back into the Windows app’s local data location after the app has been installed and opened once.

What was required for the Windows restore

For Windows, the restore required both the archived Appx installer and the matching app-data/content backup. The Appx file could reinstall the application, but the local app data was needed to restore the downloaded content.

The required pieces were:

  • the archived .Appx installer for LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor;
  • the app-data/content backup zip named after the Windows app package folder;
  • a Windows user profile where the app could create its local package data;
  • PowerShell access to install the Appx package;

Key steps in the Windows approach

The Windows approach was to separate the application install from the content restore. That made it easier to understand what each file in the archive was for.

The key steps were:

  1. use the Appx file to reinstall the Windows app;
  2. open the app once so Windows creates the expected local app-data folder;
  3. close the app before restoring the data;
  4. extract the app-data/content backup;
  5. merge the restored data into the correct Windows package data location;
  6. open the app and confirm the content was already present.

The main idea was to restore the state of the app after installation, not to depend on the app downloading its content again.

Findings and challenges

The main finding was that the Windows app could be treated as two separate restore concerns: the Appx package for the app itself, and the package data folder for the downloaded content.

The biggest challenge was making the folder structure clear. Windows app package folders have long names, and it is easy to copy a backup folder into the wrong level. That would create a nested folder that looks correct at first glance but is not where the app expects its data to be.

The Windows work also highlighted why this restore mattered. If the app’s own content download path was unreliable, then a backup containing the already downloaded content was far more useful than an installer alone.

What success looked like

The restore was successful when the Windows app opened and the content was already present from the restored app data.

That was the important test. I was not trying to prove that the app could still download everything again. I was trying to prove that the archived installer and archived app data were enough to bring the Windows app back to a usable state.

Lessons from the Windows restore

The Windows restore was a useful reminder that the app installer and the app’s local data are separate. The .appx file can reinstall the application, but it does not automatically restore the downloaded content.

The other lesson was that the folder names matter. Keeping the app-data zip named after the Windows package folder made the restore easier to follow and reduced the chance of copying the wrong folder.

Final thoughts

Windows completed the set of restore tests across Android, macOS and Windows.

Download the Windows app and content archive

The Windows Appx installer, app-data/content backup and an installation guide are available here:

Download the Windows app and content archive

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