Microsoft apparently wants to fundamentally revise the Windows 10 own store or the app and thereby give up a number of previously established principles. The platform is to become more open so that software providers can offer their products more flexibly.
As Windows Central author Zac Bowden has learned from sources close to Microsoft, the software company wants to introduce a new store app for Windows 10 that brings a more modern interface with fluid design. In addition, the regulations for sales and the type of applications available through the Windows Store are to be relaxed and more open, it says.
The aim of the various planned innovations is of course to make the Windows Store much more attractive for developers and users alike. The platform is supposed to become more popular as a result, after all, until now it has largely eked out a shadowy existence apart from the corporate context. The major update should also make dealing with the store easier.
The new store app will again be a UWP (Universal Windows Platform) application and will be updated monthly with updates and functions. Among other things, according to the report, Microsoft wants to ensure that the download of new software via the app is faster and more stable than before. This should benefit users, especially with large software packages and games.
Visually, Microsoft is supposedly based on the concepts that are generally in the specifications for the next major version of Windows 10 expected towards the end of the year and the planned new design with the code name "Sun Valley". Like many other included Windows 10 apps, the store will also be upgraded with new layouts, WinUI designs, new icons, and fluid animations, it is said.
Store opens to external updates and Win32 applications
The planned changes on the platform side, ie of a "political" nature, are almost even more important than the design. The most important innovations are the ability to sell Win32 applications in packages via the store, the option for software providers to deliver apps and updates via their own servers, and the elimination of restrictions on the choice of payment and commerce platforms in the apps that may be offered via the store.
Basically, software developers can finally sell their existing Win32 apps via the Windows Store without having to adapt the existing code. Until now, the applications always had to use an MSIX package and Microsoft's update and commerce solutions.
In addition, it will even be possible in the future to submit completely normal .exe or MSI files for sale via the store and to update the software via independent servers. This means that developers can update their products regardless of when and how despite marketing via Microsoft's own store.
So far, programs with their own update function have always been rejected, so that well-known products such as Chrome from Google and the tools from Adobe Creative Cloud could never be found in the official store under Windows 10. Microsoft's own products such as Teams, Office, Edge, and Visual Studio were also not available in the store app. All of this should change towards the end of 2021 when the new Windows Store app will supposedly appear in the course of the launch of "Sun Valley".
According to reports, Microsoft wants to give the first outlook in the course of its Build 2021 developer conference, before a public preview can be expected soon.
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