During MS Build 2022, Microsoft presented its plans to improve the Microsoft Store. Developers should be supported, among other things, by making apps more discoverable on Windows, the right audiences can be reached through ads for apps, and now Win32 programmers and web app developers also have access to the Microsoft Store.
Restore apps
MS Build 2022 is an annual developer fair. One of the new features coming to users in Windows 11 trials from Insider Channel is the ability to restore apps.
Due in part to the growing PC market, Microsoft sees it as a necessity to make it easy for users to transition to a new PC. The new feature allows users to automatically restore apps they previously installed on old PC from Microsoft Store.
According to the company, the Store is growing rapidly and the following popular apps are available in the store:
| ACDSee Gemstone | Adobe Express | daring | canvas | Course Hero | conflict |
| Drawing board PDF | epic games | Firefox | Illuminating Neo | illuminating artificial intelligence | postal chimpanzee |
| Meitu XiuXiu | Microsoft Teams | Open Office | extraordinary+ | paste | WinZip |
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Android developers should have advanced access options. Thanks to a partnership with Amazon, the Amazon App Store is moving to Windows 11. A preview of this is currently only available in the US, but will later be expanded to other countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and the UK. this year.
Application visibility in windows search
Microsoft extends the Windows search functionality in the start menu. The company hopes to give app developers more opportunities to advertise their apps. After opening the start menu and entering words, Windows will search for matching apps locally and on the web. The apps in question can be installed directly from the search results. There should also be a pop-up store and badges that developers can integrate into their websites.
Microsoft Store Ads
Store Ads should enable app developers to deliver their products in a targeted manner to a targeted customer base. As an example, the company takes a music app programmer who wants to create a targeted campaign that showcases the app to an audience that loves or makes music. A pilot program will begin shortly thereafter. Interested developers can join a waiting list.
Opportunities for Win32 Developers
Last year, Microsoft announced a waiting list for Win32 developers who program their applications in .NET, C++, Electron, Flutter, Qt, Rust, and other languages or frameworks. This option is now available to all developers. Microsoft is seeing an improvement in automatic push of new software versions to the store using GitHub Action or Rest APIs.
App developers can make the app invisible for certain test runs. An analytics dashboard will be released shortly, providing an overview of user access and app usage, app health, and successful installs.
Progressive Web App also has new tools for developers. PWA Starter aims to make development easy from scratch and provide useful tips. PWA Studio is an extension of Visual Studio Code that supports the process of creating, packaging, and publishing PWAs to the Microsoft Store without requiring developers to leave Visual Studio.
Source: Microsoft Blog
Source: Hardware Info
