14 DAY TRIAL // One of the biggest changes that Microsoft introduced back in 2012 when the company rolled out Windows 8 was the Windows Store, a modern approach to apps that allows users to download new software from a modern and secure interface.
Built for Metro apps (now called UWP), the Microsoft Store has never become the hit that Microsoft wanted it to be, and to blame for the whole thing are several reasons.
First and foremost, Microsoft has never managed to convince users that its modern apps are worth a chance, so their adoption has remained pretty low during all these years. As a result, developers themselves barely found a reason to code for Windows 10, which means that the number of apps published in the Store has never exploded.
This more or less reminds of what happened in the Windows Phone world, where developers refused to code for the platform simply because there weren’t enough users to install their apps.
But the Microsoft Store has so many other problems to deal with, and while the lack of apps is one of the most important, here are two other issues that the Redmond-based software should fix as soon as possible.
First and foremost, it’s the quality of the apps that are published in the Microsoft Store.
Microsoft brags about the things that are listed in the Store, always promising the best and most secure experience for Windows 10 users.
But on the other hand, the apps that users can download are often useless tutorials that cost tens of dollars and which some people actually pay for thinking they’re getting something useful.
Developers often turn to more or less unfair approaches to convince users to pay for their apps, as it’s the case of the so-called PDF Converter Editor For Office : PDF to Word(Docx),XLS,PPTX,HTML,TXT & Word To PDF ,Images To PDF ,Excel to PDF (quite a lot of keywords in there, right?).
According to the Microsoft Store listing, this app can be yours for $5.49, down from no less than $699.99. In other words, this is a 99% discount, something that certainly sounds like a bargain. While I haven’t tried the app, there are plenty of document converters out there, some of them available free of charge, so I have my doubts when it comes to that $699.99 original price tag.
A post in the Feedback Hub also warns of the same app, with users claiming that this trick is being used to make people believe this is a massive discount and they should get it as fast as possible at the reduced price.
And then, it’s the localized experience that the Microsoft Store offers.
A screenshot that went viral earlier this week shows the UI of the Microsoft Store for someone who lives in Belgium, a country that speaks three different languages, namely French, German, and Dutch.
The Microsoft Store uses them all, including English, so it’s all a weird mix that doesn’t make much sense. Sure, this is something that’s happening with other apps and services out there whenever users in Belgium and other countries are involved, but at the end of the day, it’s Microsoft we’re talking about here. And as the world’s number one software company, Microsoft should find a way to fix this.
Users in other countries are also complaining about missing or poor translations, so eventually, most people just decide to stick with English for a more consistent approach.
And while this is indeed a workaround, it’s something that users of Windows 10, the world’s number one desktop operating system, shouldn’t be forced to turn to by any means.