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Summary
- Microsoft Store will now manage updates for Win32 apps
- Developers will have to opt-in to allow Microsoft Store to update apps
- It will be free to publish new apps on Microsoft's platforms starting in June
This week is Microsoft's Build conference (along with Computex, Dell Tech World, and Google I/O), where the Redmond firm is set to announced a whole bunch of new things for developers. Build 2025 has a bunch coming for Windows devs, including some really notable changes to Microsoft Store policies on Windows.
Updating Win32 apps via the Microsoft Store
Microsoft has slowly been expanding the capabilities of its Store since it was the Windows Store in Windows 8. It started offering packaged/converted Win32 app support with Windows 10, but with Windows 11, you could just put any app in the Store.
The only problem is that in that case, the Store wasn't the one actually managing the app. For example, if you went and downloaded a web browser from the Microsoft Store, that browser is still going to use its own updating services. Now, that's changing.
The company didn't say when this expanded capability will be available, or how developers will be able to manage it. Right now, that app is still designed to try and update itself, so Microsoft dropping an updated package on you probably isn't doing you any favors. Presumably, developers will have to opt into this.
Moreover, the Microsoft Store is finally going to tell you when an app was last updated. The company said it was a top piece of feedback; It only took 13 years.
It's going to be free to publish new apps
Creating a developer account to publish an app on Microsoft's platforms has always been an inexpensive one-time fee, but starting in June, that fee is going aware entirely. Anyone is going to be able to just set up an account and publish an app.
The company says it's the first digital storefront to offer free submissions.
Microsoft's goal for the last decade seems to have been to drop barriers to distributing apps via the Store. Windows 10 introduced the UWP platform, but it also had 'bridges', which were designed to let you bring other types of apps over. In 2021 with Windows 11, that shifted even more to not caring about building out a new platform like UWP, and more toward just wanting to be the place that people get apps when they use Windows.
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