Here’s what went wrong with the Windows App Store and how Microsoft is trying to get things right for the future. But is it too late?
In 2012, Microsoft jumped the shark with Windows 8, releasing an ambitious, touch-first desktop OS to a world that didn’t want or see the need for one. The company has spent years undoing all the bad decisions of that era, and the Microsoft Store (originally the Windows Store) has remained a sore point. But the company might finally be making it into something useful.
I still think the Microsoft Store—a central place to find easy-to-update and vetted apps that run in a sandbox—is an amazing idea, but a series of poor bets on app requirements and initiatives (see the discussion of Metro and Universal Windows Platform apps below) made it into something almost no developer or user wanted to deal with. Here’s how things got so dire and how the company can fix things going forward.What Should the Windows Store Have Been?
Apple’s App Store and iPad (first released in 2008 and 2010, respectively) clearly inspired the idea of transforming Windows into a scalable, touch-ready OS with a dedicated app platform. But Microsoft took the wrong lessons from Apple’s innovations, using them as an excuse to clumsily launch the Windows Store without much of a plan in place for its success.
When I first heard the early rumblings that Microsoft would have an app store on Windows, I hoped it would be like a Linux package manager. If you used Linux back in the day—even at the turn of the millennium when Windows 2000 was the hot new OS—you’ll remember that Linux systems offered a one-stop shop for installing and updating software. Such an app store could have largely saved Windows users the trouble of searching the web, dodging fake download buttons, and avoiding adware check boxes in installers. It could have ended the days of a dozen different auto-updaters running in the background and taking up significant PC resources.
In short, Microsoft could have combined the best ideas of Apple’s App Store and Linux package managers to create a centralized app repository for everyday users while still letting power users install things from wherever they liked.The Windows Store on Windows 8 Was a Disaster
Of course, the Windows Store turned out to be a delivery platform for something Microsoft initially called “Metro apps” but now insists was just an internal code name. (There was reportedly a trademark dispute.) Whatever they were called—Microsoft threw around « modern » and « Store-style » apps but never committed to either—they were meant for Windows 8’s touch-centric interface and didn’t even run in dedicated windows on the desktop.
This focus on touch-centric apps essentially made the Windows Store useless for most users from the start. It didn’t let you download the VLC app you wanted, for example, instead offering a “modern” version that ran only in full-screen mode and had fewer features.
