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Microsoft WordPad, Other Classic Windows Apps Show Up in Windows 10 Store

Microsoft working at full speed on Project Centennial

May 4, 2016 07:58 GMT  ·  By
WordPad in the Windows Store
   WordPad in the Windows Store

Microsoft’s Project Centennial is a set of tools developed by the Redmond-based tech giant that allows developers to bring their Win32 program in the Windows 10 Store and eventually make their universal apps.

And what better way to convince more developers to do this than by porting your own apps and bringing them in the store?

This is exactly what Microsoft is doing right now, as @h0x0d has discovered that several Windows apps are now available in the store, including WordPad, Character Map, Windows Fax and Scan. Microsoft is very likely to continue work in this regard and bring more apps in the store, including Paint.

At this point, these apps can’t actually be downloaded, but the simple fact that they’re there shows that Microsoft wants to spearhead the transition from Win32 software to Windows Store apps that would eventually become universal and run on all Windows 10 devices, including PCs and smartphones.

The universal app push

Project Centennial isn’t Microsoft’s only effort to boost the number of apps in the Windows Store, as the company also developed Project Islandwood to allow the porting of iOS apps to Windows 10. Project Astoria, a similar effort aimed at Android apps, has already been discontinued for no clear reason.

Back at Build 2016 a few weeks back, Microsoft also introduced the so-called Desktop App Converter, a tool that makes it possible to port Win32 software to the Windows Store.

“Desktop App Converter is a pre-release tool that enables developers to bring their existing desktop apps written for .NET 4.6.1 or Win32 to the Universal Windows Platform. The developers can run their desktop installers through the converter in an unattended (silent) mode and obtain an AppX package that can be installed via the Add-AppXPackage PowerShell cmdlet on their development machine,” Microsoft explains.

The first apps, including Microsoft’s, are expected to become available for all users in the store when the Anniversary Update goes live in the summer, so until now, developers still have the time to concentrate on their porting work using the existing preview builds.