Game pass might have the most overpaid programmers of all time.

which is the dumbest thing ever. im gonna go out of my way to avoid buying anything else from M$ games pc. i thought this was an apple type thing to do. i need to research linux. im so tired of Microsoft ****.

this doesnt even help a lil bit. but thank you for your answer

If the game is installed on an external, then I don't think there should be a problem playing them on another PC if you're also signed in for authentication purposes.

then you thought wrong. because the geniuses at M$ wont let me do that. i cant even point to the windows app directory (on an external hdd) without them telling me i have to erase 100s of gigabytes of data, because the info came from another computer i "own,"
and redownload something i already spent hours doing.

this is basic stuff. Steam can figure this out but MICROSOFT cant?!? **** are yall doing? and why would they lock me out of accessing my own files? just goofy AF. apple level stupid.

which is the dumbest thing ever. im gonna go out of my way to avoid buying anything else from M$ games pc. i thought this was an apple type thing to do. i need to research linux. im so tired of Microsoft ****.

I feel for you I really do. I only have a few GamePass Games downloaded for the exact very same reason. The Windows Store's Universal Windows Apps (UWP) system is a pretty poor digital distribution platform with all its encryption and file lock outs. Something
which Steam, origin and basically every other PC download platform doesn't use.

This is why I bought Halo MCC and Streets of Rage 4 on Steam rather than via the Windows Store.

There's nothing wrong with using Windows 10 to play games from Steam or other platforms. As you already know, these platforms don't lock out your digital games from moving from system to system. moving entirely to Linux would be a rather drastic option
just because of Game Pass.

Currently, Windows 10 doesn't have official support for making a copy or backup of downloaded Store apps and games for use on another device. The closest official feature is

Delivery Optimization which lets you download the app or game from another computer on your local network; see if that feature is suitable for your needs.