Windows Store — the future center of Windows?

In recent weeks, Microsoft has made a lot of announcements. Among them Windows 10 S Surface Laptop, a significant update to Windows 10 and more, at Microsoft Build conference in 2017. Users, the question arises, what, in the context of new Microsoft announcements, the future of the most popular OS for PC and will it remain the old and familiar?

Various announcements software giant clearly indicate that the focus of Microsoft has shifted to the Windows Store, which, perhaps, will become a Central part of Microsoft operating system.

When the Windows Store came in 2012, simultaneously with the debut of Windows 8 and Windows RT, the situation in industry was quite different than it is now. Influenced by the incredible success of the iOS App Store from Apple, the tech companies tried to create their own app stores. In 2011, Apple also launched the Mac App Store, much less successful in comparison with shop digital products for mobile devices.

The debut of the Windows Store in 2012 was accompanied by the fact that Windows 8 was designed for computing devices based on Intel architecture x86 / x64, while Windows RT was designed for ARM platform. Store same for both platforms was alone, which meant that compatibility hosted apps with ARM. Because only this approach would allow the software to run also on RT.

From this it followed that the Windows Store originally contained a Metro style app, which the software giant is now focused on tablets and is designed to compete with Apple iPad. Thus, the shop was actually not intended for traditional programs focused on the Windows operating system.

In addition, it should be noted that the software based on popular frameworks .NET and Win32 is not suited for the shop. This meant that many popular programs simply could not be available in the Windows Store without their fundamental processing.

But Microsoft has learned from initially lackluster debut of Windows Store. Windows 10 will have a universal platform Universal Windows Platform that facilitates to developers the task of creating applications that could run on multiple platforms. Last year, at its Build conference in 2016, awarding of software giant Microsoft presented the tools Desktop Bridge Tool, helping to make traditional desktop applications based on .NET and Win32 Windows version compatible with Windows Store.

Last year, the first part of the Xbox One games were offered as a hosted Windows Store versions compatible with Windows 10. This was part of a program Xbox Play Anywhere, providing Microsoft the opportunity to compete with similar solutions, including Steam.

And here is a nice user-news — a Windows 10 for ARM, which is essentially the development of the concept of RT is able to run almost all applications x86 using emulation, regardless of, they are installed from the Windows Store or not. Thereby corrects the most significant drawback of RT. It seems that Microsoft wants to ensure that developers can embed in the Windows Store real desktop applications. Meanwhile, the new Windows 10 operating system S in General allows you to run only apps from the Windows Store. And in Windows Store there are a number of important user software including iTunes, Spotify, and even some Linux distributions.

Instead continue to use the store only for a certain set of apps for ARM, Microsoft is eager to put it in the basis of the Windows ecosystem. Of course, until the moment when from the store you can install applications such as Photoshop, perhaps, is still far, but the software giant would like to have available most of the software needed by the user.

If Microsoft can make a new concept of the Windows Store, you like for both users and developers, the Windows Store appears a second chance, which, if successful, will completely change the view on Windows, which has developed due to decades of market presence of these operating systems. Installing and uninstalling applications can become much easier for users. The interface of Windows Store will replace a range of challenges — download the executable file for the application, installation and the ability to remove it, not only dream about what the developer has provided any Uninstaller. Moreover, the presence of the store, which contains the main software for most popular computer OS, could simplify the process of providing software updates.

Microsoft recently added Windows 10 Update Creators the option of providing an optional ability to block installation of applications not from Windows Store. This option is similar to the Gatekeeper for OS X from Apple. In reality, in which Windows Store would contain all the necessary software needed by the user, Windows would be much safer for users.

The Benefits of this approach for Microsoft would also 30% of revenues from sales of applications. Of course, Microsoft has thought about the role of the app store later that period when this approach was innovative. We should remember that Apple tried to repeat its own success with the Mac App Store. While technology giant from Cupertino has never been such a multiplatform contradictions, like Microsoft. But the restrictions on what applications can do, and the fact that developers have to give 30% of their income from sales of applications, has led to the fact that it is easier to sell apps directly to users, and Mac App Store did not become still an indispensable part of the operating system.

However, Microsoft has a more lenient app requirements, and it could theoretically ensure its success where it has not reached Apple. All of this will become clear only over time, yet recent announcements from Microsoft clearly shows the increasing role of store apps in the Windows ecosystem.

Happy if users of this trend?

materials theverge.com