Project Centennial advancing at full speed on Windows 10

Jun 25, 2016 06:37 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is offering developers several bridges to bring their apps to the Windows 10 Store, and it just makes sense to see Redmond itself becoming the pioneer of this push.

The company is using Project Centennial, a set of tools that allow for porting of Win32 software to Windows 10 apps, to bring traditional Windows programs in the Windows Store, and the first ones have gone live earlier today.

The famous WordPad, Microsoft Character Map, Fax and Scan, and XPS Viewer are all available in the store right now, but just as MSPU notes, they’re only offered to PCs running preview builds of Windows 10. In other words, Microsoft is still testing them, and the best way to do this is by providing Windows insiders with early access to the first versions published in the store.

PC exclusive apps for the moment

If everything goes according to plan, all these apps should be released for all users when the Anniversary Update goes live next month, but you’ll have to be running this version in order to install them. So the chances are that if you remain on the 1511 or the original 10240 versions of Windows 10, these apps won’t be supported.

On the other hand, it’s important to note that, for the moment, these aren’t universal apps, so they can’t be installed on phones - although we agree that some would really come in handy to Windows 10 Mobile users. But for WordPad, for instance, it makes no sense to release it on Windows phones, given the fact that Microsoft is already offering the Office productivity suite, so this could be one of the reasons the company is keeping these apps PC exclusive.

The Anniversary Update of Windows 10 is projected to launch next month, so Microsoft has just a few weeks to get these apps ready for all users. Certainly, more will land in the coming months as well, as the company continues work on Project Centennial.