The Microsoft Store (previously Windows Store) has seen many improvements and big changes over the years, but it’s still far from perfect. With Windows 12 rumoured, there are many things the company can improve with their app store, including some weird bugs, programs getting updated on their own, and even the frustrating slow experience.
In recent years and after lots of improvements, Microsoft Store has seen some big names in its catalogues, including Adobe, Evernote, Audacity, Vivaldi Browser, Opera, Brave, Firefox, Affinity, Samsung, and even smaller but useful tools such as Rufus, CCleaner, Grammarly, and many others. Although it’s still pretty empty compared to what you can find outside the app store, it’s an easy way to find and install multiple apps safely.
There are many reasons why the company should focus on providing an app store that’s easy to use, modern, and fast; It’s for all those users who lack basic skills and want to use an app store to quickly download and install their favourite apps. It’s also for everyone who hates manually checking and updating every single application that has been installed on its devices. That’s both time-consuming and frustrating, to say the least. Microsoft Store puts an end to all this updating fuss, but it needs more improvement if the company truly want it to succeed.
Let’s dive into the problem section first, shall we?
There’s nothing more frustrating than having a modern and fast gaming PC with 48GB of RAM and Windows 11 fresh installed, and whenever you launch the Microsoft Store, it’s as slow as a turtle. And no, it’s not my internet connection, and yes, more people are experiencing the same issue as of now. For more advanced users who care, clearing the cache of resetting the app won’t improve the speed and smoothness.
Speaking of smoothness, there’s none. Well, not always, per se, but most of the time Microsoft Store has this constant lagging experience, and users and companies should not have the same experience in Windows 12.
Then there’s the problem with discovering new apps; There aren’t many app categories to navigate and you only get what you see in the “Apps” or “Gaming” sections. There are also some important sections missing from the Microsoft Store, although the app store itself gives you access to them, such as Fonts and Themes. Browser Extensions could also be integrated into the Microsoft Store, which would make it easier for users to find and install with 1 click any Edge extension.
If we were going even deeper into what Microsoft Store could be, think about an e-books section that lets you download for free or pay for your favourite e-books, download them with 1 click, and read them through Microsoft Edge. Think about another section from which you can find online templates for Microsoft Office and Loop, which will redirect you to the editing page. A section to find and quickly install new fonts would also be a great addition.
There are many things the company can implement, not that what I recommend is right, but with a bit of imagination, they can ultimately create something neat that would drive attention from both Windows users and developers.
Notifications are also awful, as I never get notified whenever there are new updates for my apps, apart from when I install the operating system for the first time. While I have the Microsoft Store’s icon pinned into my taskbar in Windows 11, it never gives me this red circle at the top right corner which indicates whenever there’s an update. And don’t get me started with many programs getting updated by their own updaters, which causes an issue because once they get updated once by their own updater, Microsoft Store won’t provide any future updates for this app.
Last but not least, the company should also focus on providing a more stable Microsoft Store that doesn’t give you often errors when installing a new app or updating one, as I’ve seen many of those over the years. Sometimes it was unable even to launch, auto-closing after a few seconds, which made me use some commands in the Command Prompt to resolve the issue.
Sooner or later, Microsoft will announce their newer operating system, Windows 12, which will be the default operating system for millions of devices in the upcoming years. Once they do, I’d like to see an improved Microsoft Store that’s modern, easy to use, and has more features and options. The updated app store should also offer better organization and ways to discover new apps by types, categories, etc.
Take for example the newest “AI Hub” section, which is a new way to discover apps that provide some kind of AI-powered features; It’s not well-structured and it’s missing organization.
I’ve tried many times to use Microsoft Store for downloading and updating my apps, but it never got my attention, not compared with other store apps at least. I just never wanted to use it really, as it was slow and laggy, which always made me frustrated even thinking of launching the app. I hope Microsoft, alongside Windows 12, can give us both a good operating system and an improved app store.
Are you using the Microsoft Store to download and update your apps, or you’re still using third-party websites to download your favourite software? What do you like and hate the most about the Windows app store and what do you think is missing? Let me know by dropping your comment down below.
