The Microsoft Store needs an option to remove apps

Jan 18, 2019 12:36 GMT  ·  By

Nobody can deny that Windows 10 has evolved a lot in the latest feature updates, and there’s no doubt that the next releases would bring even more improvements.

But at the same time, there are also features that some would think they just make sense in Windows 10 but for whatever reason, Microsoft has ignored them until now.

One of them concerns the Microsoft Store, Microsoft’s very own bet that the company struggles so hard to make the one destination for everything in Windows 10.

As a side note, if you really hope that people would start using the Microsoft Store, you need to keep an eye on every single piece of feedback about it, so when a certain request reaches thousands of votes, it’s pretty clear you have to make it happen.

In Windows 10, this isn’t really the case, and while this isn’t the main reason some users stay away from the Microsoft Store, it’s one of the factors that contribute to its rather slow adoption.

I’m talking about a button, a very simple button, whose purpose is to uninstall an application that has already been installed on your system.

The Microsoft Store has indeed evolved to provide easy installation of more than just apps, and this includes games, ebooks, themes, and Microsoft Edge extensions. And while it’s pretty simple to install them, users just have to go to the Settings app to uninstall them.

At first glance, this doesn’t sound like the kind of inconvenience that makes you stay away from the Microsoft Store, but I figured out how much sense such an option would make when one of my colleagues using Linux, and new to Windows, asked why he can’t remove apps from the Store.

After all, you can actually see your app library from the Microsoft Store, including the list of installed apps, so why not providing an option to remove them easily?

Microsoft Store in Windows 10 19H1 with no app removal option

I’m not the only one wondering why such an option does not exist. A Feedback Hub suggestion is getting closer to 2,400 votes, and many users explain that such an update would actually make the Microsoft Store a little bit more useful.

“It will be a nice addition to the Microsoft Store. And will be one small step to finally become a mature store,” one user explains. “There should be a "My Apps" page, just like "Downloads and Updates", except that you can manage the installation state of the app from the "My Apps" page. The "My Apps" page should have usage and resource statistics, and other useful information, for each app,” another user added.

On Google Play Store, when opening a product page, next to the option that lets you launch the app, there’s also a second button to uninstall it. This is exactly how it should work on Windows 10 too.

The Microsoft Store should allow users to remove apps not only from the main listing of the app, but also from the library, as the latter comes in handy especially when trying to delete multiple items at once.

I agree, there are easy ways to remove apps installed from the Microsoft Store, but why not offer one more exactly in the place where users would expect it to be?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the upcoming Windows 10 version 1903, currently codenamed, comes with this app removal option in the Microsoft Store, but let’s just hope Microsoft gets the message and implements it in a future OS update.

Windows 10 version 1903 is projected to go live in March for insiders and in April for production devices, so technically, Microsoft could actually have the time to make it happen.

Head over to the Feedback Hub to make yourselves heard if you want this feature to be part of Windows 10.

Microsoft Store in Windows 10 19H1 with no app removal option

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Microsoft Store in Windows 10 19H1 with no app removal option
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