I'm not even sure how to launch the Windows App Store since I removed it from my task bar.

I mainly play games so it isn't very useful.

The one time I searched for something, looking for an App Store item, it was pretty horrible (using the normal win-key, start typing search method).

It should be in your Start menu still, with the rest of your apps/programs (they just call it "Store" there). If you type "store" into the search bar, that should work too.