Microsoft Store icon no longer pinned to taskbar

Oct 21, 2019 09:49 GMT  ·  By

Windows 10 November 2019 Update, or version 1909, is just around the corner, and while this release won’t bring too many new features and improvements, it could come with a change turning the Microsoft Store into a second-class citizen.

As some have discovered recently, clean-installing Windows 10 November 2019 Update using the build which Microsoft says is final no longer pins the Microsoft Store app to the taskbar.

In other words, you’ll get a cleaner taskbar without the Store icon, so if you want to launch this feature, you need to do it from the Start menu.

The change, if it indeed makes its way to the production build of Windows 10 November 2019 Update, is a little bit unexpected, especially as Microsoft has pushed hard for the Microsoft Store to become a more successful feature.

Microsoft Store in the long term

If at first glance the removal of the icon from the taskbar no longer sounds like a big deal, it actually is, as it makes the Store more difficult to discover and reduces its exposure in the OS.

Just think of the Start screen in Windows 8.1. Microsoft said it removed the Start menu mostly to make people aware the Start screen is there. Without this approach, nobody would have discovered the Start screen, eventually making it a feature not worth improving in the long term.

On the other hand, Microsoft removing the Microsoft Store from the taskbar in Windows 10 version 1909 could mean one of the two things.

First, the software giant might be thinking that the Store has reached its maturity, so it no longer needs an icon pinned to the taskbar because everyone knows about it and launching it from the Start menu is easy anyway.

And second, this could be the first step towards Microsoft giving up on the Store as a whole in the long term. While I doubt this is the case, the Store has never gained too much traction, and Microsoft might be rethinking its approach just like it does with Cortana and other features.