After a surprisingly long period of time, the Microsoft Store online now accepts Microsoft Wallet for payment. Which leads to the question: How do you set it up? Let’s have a look…
While many of us might dream of an online world where everything is free, the reality is that we have to pay for the content, media, and apps we acquire. Sometimes it’s shareware or built around in-app purchases, but if you like to watch movies, download the latest trendy games, or upgrade to the mower powerful new software, you need to be prepared to pay. It’s only fair, and even if you wanted to side-step things, digital rights management and key management will slow you down.
Historically, it’s been a bit of a pain to pay through the Microsoft Store, requiring that you have yet another place where your online payment information – typically a credit card – is stored. The more places you store it, the greater the chance it’ll be filched, of course, so that wasn’t great. Now, finally, the Microsoft Store works with the Microsoft Wallet. Even better, it works with the “virtual card” system so each transaction actually uses a different credit card number. If one is somehow stolen, it won’t help the criminal.
To get all of this benefit, of course, you need to get everything set up, and perhaps surprisingly, that’s done in Microsoft Edge, not in the Microsoft Store app. Let’s start with the Store, however. As of the latest update for August, 2024, checking out the What’s New area reveals two helpful new features:
Store search suggestions is probably helpful if you’re hunting for something new, but it’s the “Fast, safe checkout with Microsoft Wallet”. Notice that one of the new Wallet features is that you can redeem points, which makes it a fun way to get things as a reward for using Bing as your search engine.
SET UP YOUR WALLET IN MICROSOFT EDGE
There’s no app to set up or use your Wallet, it’s all accessed through Microsoft Edge. For a shortcut, you can go to edge://settings/profiles or you can navigate there through “•••” > Settings > Profiles. Scroll down and you’ll find a “Wallet” section:
Click on Open Wallet (or use the Edge shortcut edge://wallet if you prefer) and you’ll be able to see what you have set up, if anything:
You can see that it shows my Microsoft Rewards status (42k is not bad!), any Microsoft Cashback from rebates, and that I have one payment method set up. If I had none, it would show “+ Add payment” instead. Either way, a click on that spot and details about the payment is displayed. Well, once you prove that you’re authorized to proceed:
In fact, you’ll encounter identity verification requests multiple times as you proceed with the Wallet, a good thing since you don’t want someone else nabbing this info without authorization. Enter your PIN or other verification (typically an account password) and, finally, you can see what’s set up:
Eagle eyed readers will notice that I’m using my Apple Card with the Microsoft Store. In fact, as long as the payments clear, I’m completely sure Microsoft doesn’t give a whit about that!
ENABLE VIRTUAL CARD SECURITY
One of the best features of Microsoft Wallet is that you can enable a “virtual card”. What that does is generate a new card and ID code each time it’s used for a transaction. So much more secure than using the same card and info for years on end at gas stations, supermarkets, stores, online, etc. Definitely worth enabling. To do that, I need to both click the switch to turn it green (e.g., “on”) and add my billing address, which seems to have been skipped earlier. “Save” at the bottom then produces yet another identity confirmation request.
This will actually have Microsoft query your credit card issuer for confirmation. Once that’s done (it takes 5-10 seconds in most instances) you’ll see the following:
All ready to go and now I see “Protected by Edge”. Nice. Now, let’s use it!
FINALLY, BACK IN THE MICROSOFT STORE
Back in the Microsoft Store, I’m going to buy a key episode of the blockbuster anime series Sailor Moon…
Turns out this is quite a popular series, but I should point out that it’s the original Japanese version so it does not include English subtitles. Nihongo ga wakaru nara, mondai arimasen, but if you don’t understand Japanese, you’ll want a different version from the Microsoft Store. I’ll proceed with this, however, for illustrative purposes…
Season 302, Episode 1 sounds good so I’ll click on the “Starts at $0.99” and choose “Standard Definition” for that price. Next step is to actually buy the episode with the newly configured Microsoft Wallet…
This is the same payment info added through Microsoft Edge, and it should automatically use the virtual card as needed to ensure the transaction is secure. A click on “Buy” and just a few moments later I’m ready to go!
And that’s how you set up your Microsoft Wallet, enable virtual card for security, and use it to buy something in the Microsoft Store. Helpful!
Pro tip: I’ve been writing about Microsoft Windows and its many tools and utilities for many years. Please check out my extensive Windows help area for more useful tutorials while you’re here!