To date, Microsoft hasn’t said anything publicly about what’s going to happen to any of its digital app stores. But privately, officials across various teams at the company have been trying to come up with a concerted strategy, I’ve heard.
That strategy does not call for Microsoft to drop the Web version of the Microsoft Store. I’m not sure what will happen to the Microsoft Store client that’s built into Windows 10 right now; my contacts say its future is “uncertain” at this point.
To say the Microsoft Store has been a failure might be a bit too harsh – it has allowed Microsoft itself to update some core Windows applications easier than ever before – but a raging success it is not. Windows developers don’t really care, and users keep installing applications the way they’re used to, so it only makes sense for Microsoft to reevaluate its strategy with regard to the various versions of its application store.
I’m not sad about it.
I never understood the point of the Microsoft Store. If I have to restrict myself to a handful of trusted and well-known desktop apps because every desktop app on Windows asks for root access during installation (and as a result is allowed to cause havoc in the system), what is the point of a discovery mechanism like the Microsoft Store?
The Metro/Modern/Universal apps were supposed to fix the problem, but the interface was crap. Just compare the desktop app for WinZip with the Metro puke to see what I am talking about.
Microsoft should offer portable and root-less desktop apps if they are serious about allowing discovery. No unknown desktop app is allowed root access on my Windows system, and most users are just as risk-averse if not more when using Windows.
UWP as a deployment mechanism (vs as a platform API) basically is a portable/rootless system. Office is probably the flagship example there, though there’s a few others. MS were trying to make UWP packaged win32 apps the norm, deployed through the store. It looks like they’re giving up.
Is the the biggest advantage of a store pushed updates?
It seems to be a big deal for many small and medium sized business that are effectively rudderless in regards to IT, one of the biggest problems I find at client premises is that the IT staff block updates across the board. Rather than managing risk they prefer a sort of status quo of indifference, or as I refer to it ar5e growth over security growth! This often leaves the end user on an outdated and compromised platform.
Before I get flamed. I’m fully appreciative of the pain caused when global updates go bad, but I don’t accept the use of events like that as an excuse for doing nothing.
I can only hope they discontinue the store entirely and finally end the experiment that started with Windows 8’s attempt to “smartphone-itize” their OS and start taking a 30% cut of every software sale like Android/iOS. That’s essentially why it failed, it provides no benefit other than to make Microsoft an unnecessary middle man. UWP in particular was a no-go for gamers once they realized encrypted files meant it wasn’t going to be possible to do any modding. Sure the functionality is being added, but it seems like a “only if the publisher gives the ok and actually does some work to enable it” scenario. Of course the main store is unlikely to go anywhere, just these relatively unknown ones that likely directly competed with Microsoft’s other software distribution products and thus probably didn’t get any attention or funding.
dark2,
Same. I am glad the software industry stuck to their roots and didn’t let microsoft become an all powerful software middleman. Although the continuation of win32 isn’t necessarily so great. Had it succeeded, it would have given microsoft unprecedented power over 3rd party desktop developers (akin to apple’s power over 3rd party ios developers). Microsoft would then be a position to phase out “legacy” applications distributed outside of microsoft channels and leaving us with restrictions similar to “windows s mode”. With such high barriers between users and 3rd party publishers, the remaining pockets of 3rd party publishers would become non-viable without giving into microsoft’s 30% fee.
I don’t understand the anti-store perspective, I gather we won’t hear anything negative coming from MacOS users!
If the sandboxing and store were pushed separately, similar to how anyone can run an alternative APK store, then maybe it would have succeeded as the successor to
.msifiles and I’d have no problem with that.I’m a MacOS user to prove you wrong. The Mac App Store is one of the worst jokes of the platform. Not only can you hardly get anything from there that you’re looking for but, on the rare occasions you do find the app you want, it’s gimped in some way and you have to get the full bundle from the developer anyway. And let’s not go into the apps that have gotten in pretending to be “security software” and actually being adware and worse. It’s a joke, and not a funny one.
I’d be happy if they’d just phase out the bit of the store that forceably loads bloatware that I don’t want on my machine after I’ve installed Windows. Hint Microsoft: If I don’t click install, I don’t want it. Oh, and kill the ads in your built-in apps while you’re at it since that garbage comes through the store too.