14 DAY TRIAL // Many say the Microsoft Store is a failed attempt to push Windows to modern apps, but at the same time, others rely on this new feature for everything that involves installing apps on their devices.
While opinions are still divided on whether the Microsoft Store is a useful Windows 10 tool or not, Microsoft keeps working on it, and further refinements are rolled out every once in a while.
The most recent improvements for the Microsoft Store change the categories that are displayed in the app, making the whole thing a little bit more confusing.
New categories, less intuitive browsing
Instead of straightforward categories like apps, games, and Edge extensions, you now get Gaming, Entertainment, Productivity, and Deals.
Most likely, the company wanted to create software hubs that better group apps and games in a way that make more sense for users who fire up the Microsoft Store to discover new stuff. But on the other hand, browsing a specific category of apps might actually not be so intuitive, especially because finding app categories is no longer as easy as it was before the update.
The Microsoft Store update has already been pushed to both insiders and production devices. On my device running Windows 10 version 1903 (May 2019 Update, non insider), the Microsoft Store app has been updated to version 11910.1001.5.0 earlier today, and the new categories are already there.
Of course, there’s not much to do about it if you don’t like the new approach because you can’t go back to a previous version of the Microsoft Store.
Microsoft hasn’t publicly announced the change in the Microsoft Store, but since it’s already live on production devices, I’m guessing this is the company’s choice going forward, so I don’t expect any change in the long term.