Here's the story behind the Microsoft Store for Windows 11 and how its creator thinks this time it'll work

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A fresh face

Here's the story behind the Microsoft Store for Windows xi and how its creator thinks this time it'll work

Forth with Windows eleven comes Microsoft's new vision of the Microsoft Store — will information technology exist enough to turn the tide?

Microsoft Store Windows11 October 2022 Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

Back with the launch of Windows 8 came one of Microsoft's first attempts at an app store. The idea seemed uncomplicated enough. Open the gates, allow developers submit Windows Apps, Microsoft takes a cut, and consumers get new affect-friendly applications congenital for the unique Windows 8 experience.

Unfortunately, Windows viii — and the Shop — had a very rough fourth dimension.

Microsoft rebooted the thought in Windows 10, but the new store had a dissever personality with telephone apps that could be PC apps and vice versa. Again, the concept seemed valid (Apple afterwards used it for iOS and iPad Bone), but Microsoft couldn't catch a interruption or any top-tier apps as major companies stayed away from the walled garden.

With Windows 11, the company is trying once more with a brand new store built from the ground up, and the result could be very different this time. In 2022, the founder and CEO of Epic Games publicly chastised Microsoft'southward store policies. Now in 2022, Epic Games is now in the Microsoft Store. Times have certainly changed.

I sat down with Giorgio Sardo, the General Director of the new Microsoft Store, to detect out what is then unlike this time.

Information technology starts with a vision, and the squad

Microsoft Store Windows11 October 2022 The new Microsoft Store for Windows eleven with redesign. Source: Windows Key

A few years ago, Sardo "started dreaming" of a different store for Windows, of how it could be. Sardo wasn't in charge of the store at the time, merely he took his ideas and formalized them in a white paper that began to make the rounds internally at Microsoft. That strategy worked, as many of the other teams in Windows agreed with the concepts.

Hearing his ideas, and with the support of many of the Windows team behind him, Microsoft let him take a shot. After all, information technology couldn't be whatever worse. But going from a simple certificate to an app is a lot more complicated.

Interestingly, Sardo's favorite new feature of the shop is the team behind it. He sought to rebuild it from scratch, which took effectually six months. It was a global endeavour. The U.S., Europe, India, China, and Africa — developers from these places were brought on board, each of them bringing various backgrounds not usually associated with building a store.

Sardo'due south favorite new feature of the store is the team behind it.

Hardcore fans of Microsoft and Windows Phone remember Rudy Huyn for his well-received UWP app development, including making apps that official companies refused to make for Windows Phone — Instagram, Tinder, Snapchat, etc. After jumping from Dropbox to Microsoft in 2022, Rudy eventually joined the new Store squad becoming its Principal Architect. Christopher Blackman, the developer backside the excellent YouTube customer myTube! also joined.

Co-ordinate to Sardo, these people "understand the product." Indeed, Huyn, Blackman, and others in the UWP app community understood pattern and preached the gospel of Windows app evolution, non only creating corking apps but creating fans of their piece of work. Sardo reached out to other developers for thoughts and opinions on what would brand the shop better. Some ideas were good, others not.

With the vision and team in place, the next stride was to set some goals. Here is where the idea behind the Microsoft Store for Windows eleven dramatically shifts from Windows 10. Previously, "stores" were tied to one idea: Revenue. Only Sardo thought this was the incorrect way to go about it. "Our goal was to have consumers find the best content on Windows devices and [for] developers to be more successful. That'southward it. That'southward the only goal. Needs of consumers and needs of developers."

"Our goal was to have consumers find the best content on Windows devices and [for] developers to be more than successful. That's it."

These ideas were reflected in revised revenue policies for the new store. If a visitor, like Adobe, has its own commerce model and content commitment network (CDN), they go to keep 100% of the acquirement for its apps. Microsoft gets aught. PC games are treated differently from apps as Microsoft gets 12% — down from xxx% — matching the Ballsy Games Store and chirapsia both Apple and Google, who take much more than all-encompassing cuts.

Information technology's a big step in the right direction.

Another small alter is just the openness behind its evolution. The new store feel was office of the first public beta builds of Windows 11, as Sardo wanted user feedback to refine the experience. Today'south weblog post is a part of that – highlighting features, showing momentum, listening to users, etc.

New design, fewer barriers, and stores-in-stores?

Microsoft Store Windows11 October More games, more apps, more content is the hope. Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

It'due south non just the model of the store that has changed, but the looks also. Opening the new store, you are greeted not with small indie apps but big ones like Discord, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, iTunes, Adobe Acrobat, CorelDRAW, Canva, TikTok, PlutoTV, Paramount+, SlingTV, and Reddit.

Many of those apps only arrived in the shop in the last few months, some as recently as just this calendar week. Something is working here.

I major modify is Microsoft letting any program into the shop, including "archetype" Windows desktop apps like WinZip. Previously, desktop apps needed to use Microsoft's proprietary packaging tool (MSIX), but now companies tin can utilise their own desktop installers. That means even spider web browsers like Opera and Yandex are immune too (and coming this week).

Another uncanny shift is Microsoft letting other stores into its store. Amazon and Epic Games are the offset, but others are expected. Amazon'south Android store is office of an fifty-fifty stranger ability to let Android apps run in Windows 11 (coming later).

Ballsy Games is just the installer to permit you run the Epic Games store and launcher. It'southward a bit weird only convenient for people. Information technology goes live today as well, even though it was just announced a calendar week ago. At that place's no reason at this point why Steam or Origin couldn't exist listed either.

Starting Oct 1, the new search results feature the intended application. Source: Windows Central

Looks and UX are essential, too. Embracing connected animations, the new Microsoft Store for Windows xi feels alive as content flows based on clicking. And when your cursor hovers in a higher place content, a subtle light consequence lets you know information technology's active. The store is more straightforward while presenting valuable information like reviews, installation, hardware requirements, and more.

But perhaps the nigh significant claiming is search, and Sardo readily acknowledges "information technology'southward hard!" The trouble is surfacing the right content that the user intends to find while diminishing bad results or junkware. The visitor must walk a fine line as some apps are legitimate (not junkware), fifty-fifty if they're non well-reviewed.

One solution to this problem just rolled out on October one. At present, when someone searches for "WhatsApp," Microsoft features the app above all the other semi-related finds with a straightforward "install" button. It's a welcome and familiar modify every bit it looks like the results from the Google Play Shop for Android.

Digital movies and Boob tube shows are overwhelming these days. While you may find what you want in search, knowing where you can sentry it is a challenge. Why pay to hire a movie if another service has it costless to stream? Microsoft is solving this by now deep linking content to other streaming services: Search for "Dug Days," and you'll meet a "Stream on Disney+" button side by side to it. If the app isn't installed, you go to the shop's app list for it. If it is installed, information technology simply launches Disney+ and takes yous directly to the picture show.

Pop Up Store The Microsoft "pop-upwards" Store happens when y'all click a smart badge. Source: Windows Primal

Disney+ is the first service to take reward of this new feature, simply there is no reason Netflix, Amazon Prime, VUDU, and others tin't either. Those deep links tin coexist, giving users a clear option of where to buy, rent, or stream digital content.

Optimization is also critical to the user experience, so the store is faster now. In an internal report with data from Windows Insiders, Microsoft says the new store is "35% faster for 90% of the users."

Another new feature is the "popular-up shop" launching this week with Windows 11. When developers want to share their app on the web, they can copy a elementary embed code. That code, when published, gives a articulate indication of the app and how to get it — so far, this is standard. Simply in clicking the "smart badge," it expands using spider web technologies to finer launch a mini–Microsoft Store where users can so straight install the app right then, instead of handing off the link to the primary shop app in a more jarring experience.

Challenges (and things to come)

Microsoft Store Windows11 October 2022 Source: Windows Primal

The new Microsoft Shop for Windows 11 has been in public testing for a few months already. Feedback has been positive, although there has been some criticism too. Some of that is just stuff "coming before long," as Sardo acknowledges the team couldn't get everything into the app for October 5, when Windows 11 launches.

For instance, letting users manage desktop apps in their store library is in the works. And there is still a lot more than to exist washed in search, although sorting by age rating or filtering by category is now rolling out. Sardo'south team promises, "and there's even more we accept planned – we'll have additional improvements to share with you in the coming months."

In that location'due south still a lot more to be done in the Microsoft Store for search.

Android apps for Windows 11 are set up to debut for Windows Insiders in the coming months. For the first fourth dimension, users can run Android Apps, Linux apps, UWP, web apps (PWA), and native desktop apps side past side in Windows 11, which is undoubtedly baroque but a testament to the openness of the Os. It's unclear how search will work with multiple app entries like TikTok, just Sardo says they'll explain it all when information technology launches.

There are yet some oddities too. If you search for DOOM Eternal in the Microsoft Store, you detect the game, but the install is handed off to the Xbox app for PC to download. Sardo explains his team and the Xbox team work very closely together and that app is amend designed for gamers. But the process still seems a fleck disjointed — information technology seems the Xbox app should hand off to the Microsoft Store for all downloads instead of the reverse. However, for now, this is how things will be.

Microsoft Store Stream Disney The new Microsoft Shop can deep link to Disney+ content with a single click. Source: Microsoft

Some other change is more fundamental. The concept of a "walled garden" store, as argued past Apple, is to ensure quality apps and platform security. With these new policies, some of those walls accept been pulled downwards past letting full desktop installers into the Store. While those apps notwithstanding need to exist vetted and approved by Microsoft, getting a 2000-era desktop installer with popular-ups feels quite outdated.

And classic apps like WinZip or Adobe Acrobat don't update through the Microsoft Store as one may wait. Instead, those apps (and browsers like Opera) employ their own app updaters, just like it was in 2001 instead of 2022. Developers tin can solve this past adopting Microsoft's MSIX app packet format. It remains unclear how many developers will go that road or even become further by redoing those old apps with more modern Microsoft dev technologies. But Sardo claims at that place'south "a lot of energy effectually MSIX," and at least i significant publisher may be switching over.

So far, It seems Microsoft and Sardo have made many good choices and have had many early wins. The new Microsoft Store for Windows xi has more momentum pre-launch than the Windows ten Store had during its unabridged tenure, which indeed says something. But nosotros'll have to look and come across if that bulldoze can proceed equally the long-term success of the Microsoft Shop hinges on how Windows 11 is received by consumers.

Will developers encompass writing new apps for Windows 11 instead of using Microsoft's shop every bit a simple link repository? That's the challenge, and the jury is nevertheless out.

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Daniel Rubino

Daniel Rubino is the Executive Editor of Windows Key. He has been covering Microsoft hither since 2007 back when this site was called WMExperts (and afterward Windows Phone Primal). His interests include Windows, Surface, laptops, and modern computing. Follow him on Twitter: @daniel_rubino.