Microsoft is rolling out more changes to the Microsoft Store, the main app and games store on Windows 10 and 11. It now has more system integrations, faster performance, a Copilot button, and other updates.
The Microsoft Store is still not the best experience around. It’s filled with a lot of low-quality applications, and the general experience with downloading and managing games is worse than Steam and other competing stores.
Microsoft has been trying to fix the Store over the last few years with some design and functional updates. In Europe, the Store can now be completely uninstalled from Windows, thanks to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act.
Microsoft says it has “rearchitected how search works” in the Store, with updated rankings for based on app updates, ratings, and language-specific nuances. That should help you find higher-quality apps and games without digging through the junk software. The home page of the Microsoft Store will also now have “fresh recommendations based on recent activities, what’s trending in your region and the most recent deals.”
It wouldn’t be a Windows update without Copilot showing up, and sure enough, the chatbot is now coming to the Microsoft Store. It’s now a floating button in the corner, and if you click it, you can ask Copilot questions about the current app or game—Google just rolled out a similar feature in the Play Store for Android. The Copilot button is currently limited to PCs in the United States.
The Start menu in Windows 11 will now include results from the Microsoft Store, just like Spotlight on Mac and iPhone show results from the Apple App Store. The Store results include some basic information from the app listing, like the icon, description, and main screenshot, with a one-click button to start installation. Handy.
Suggested apps from the Microsoft Store will also start showing up in the ‘Open with’ menu from File Explorer. The blog post explains, “we’re experimenting with offering app suggestions to open select file extensions, which is particularly helpful if you don’t have an app for that extension, or haven’t selected a default app.” The suggestions are going live first for Insider testers in the United States and China.
Finally, Microsoft says the Store now “launches two times faster than it did six months ago,” thanks to several performance updates. The Microsoft Store has definitely been slow to open for me on various PCs over the years, so it’s great to see some progress in speeding it up.
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You’re getting some love, even if you haven’t updated in a while.
Even though the Microsoft Store is preinstalled on most Windows computers, and it has been around since the Windows 8 days, most people still download software directly from websites or other stores. The new Start menu integration might funnel more people into the Microsoft Store, but it’s unlikely to break the habit of downloading EXE files straight from the web. Some of those executables will use the Microsoft Store for installation, though.
Source: Windows Blog
