Epic Games coming to Windows New Store (Win 10/11), web browsers, and more

[GoodBytes]

Windows 11 with Microsoft new Store (which is also coming to Windows 10, but a few months later) is launching next week, on October 5th.

 

In the past, at Windows 11 reveal, Microsoft announced that its new store (which has been reworked from the ground up) has the ability to integrated with other stores. This was kept vague beside the fact that Amazon will be there for providing Windows 11 users Android app support via its WSA technology (Windows Subsystem for Android).

 

Today, Microsoft is actually through, and announces that Epic Games Store app will now be available through Windows Store.

No info if it will be integrated to the Store like Amazon Store at this moment, or just the Epic Store App would be downloadable, or have the Epic Store app discoverable now, and in the future have theirs integrated to the Store app. Only time will tell.
 

( New Store that is coming for both Win11 and 10. Picture doesn't show Epic Games in action, it's not there at the moment of screenshot on my side )

 

Giorgio Sardo, general manager of the Microsoft Store says:

Quote

Just like any other app, third-party storefront apps will have a product detail page — which can be found via search or by browsing — so that users can easily find and install it with the same confidence as any other app in the Microsoft Store on Windows. Today, we are sharing that Amazon and Epic Games will bring their storefront apps to the Microsoft Store over the next few months, and we look forward to welcoming other stores as well in the future.

 

As for Tim Sweeny, CEO and founder of Epic:

While Windows 11 is not out yet, since Windows 11 Insider the following third-party apps has landed to the Store (I included apps that were announced to be coming or may be coming. See notes on each items):

 

• Discord 
• OBS Studio
• LibreOffice
• Opera web browser
• Yandex web browser
• Firefox (Mozilla hinted that it may come... no confirmation yet)
   
• Adobe Acrobat Reader DC
• Adobe Creative Cloud (confirmed by MS that it is coming)
• Foxit PhantomPDF
• Disney+
• ZOOM Cloud Meetings
• VLC
• WinRAR
• TeamViewer
• TALK
• Conva
• Luminar AI
• Music Maker
• Clipchamp
   
• Reddit (PWA)
• Lyft (PWA)
• Wikipedia (PWA)
• Tumblr (PWA)
   
• Microsoft Visual Studio Code
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition
• Microsoft PowerToys
• Microsoft Edge web browser

 

Why the Store is getting love?

Great question. This is because Microsoft has reworked its policies and greatly improved its Store system.

In summary:

• Using the Store own payment system is now optional. If a third-party wants to use their own custom one, or use a third party one, they can.
• Those who uses the Store payment system, gets to enjoy a 10% cuts for app, down from the traditional 30% (games excluded)
• Alternate app store can provided downloaded from the Store app.
• Third-party stores can work with MS to integrated their Store to MS Store to provide users a central place for users to get all their apps/games needs. Amazon will be the first for Android apps. We need to see how this will go.
• Apps with in-app purchases doesn't need to give a cut to MS as using the MS Store payment system is optional (hence the PWA ones mentioned above arriving).
• Win32 app support. Regardless of the framework used, .NET, Java, or something else, there is no additional work for third party to publish their app to the Store (beside the publishing part).
  Previously, Win32 apps needed to be wrapped in this UWP layer, which ended up not being this easy thing. This requirement is now gone.
• Store is open to third party web browsers.
• Third-party stores within another other store is allowed. (So you can get Epic Games Store to get Itch.io store, if you want.)

 

Source:

https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/28/22698196/microsoft-store-third-party-app-stores-epic-games-amazon

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2021/09/28/microsoft-store-more-apps-more-open/

 

 

My thoughts

An excellent start for Microsoft. So far, on my side the new Store shows no issues with downloading and updating apps (didn't try games). It is notably faster when one navigates and is more responsive. Search has been improved as well. Crap app has been dropped, but, at the moment of writing, you can still dig some up. Hopefully, Microsoft won't stop there and continue with the cleanup. Based on my reading, it seems that games in the store is still not clear if their is any policy changes. I think Microsoft has yet to make up its mind on that front. A very smart move for Microsoft to bring this new Store to Windows 10 as well, hopefully by end of 2021 or early 2022 it will arrive. This will help boost the user base for Microsoft, and boost apps arriving to its new Store.

 

As more apps gets added, would you be interested in getting your apps through the Store?

Or you are going to continue to get the apps the web site of the application?

 

[TetraSky]

I'm more surprised to see WinRAR on that list than anything. It still exists and people still use that over 7zip?

I do wonder if Valve will embrace the Windows Store as well in the future...

[Master Disaster]

17 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

I'm more surprised to see WinRAR on that list than anything. It still exists and people still use that over 7zip?

I do wonder if Valve will embrace the Windows Store as well in the future...

LOL, I think GabeN wouldn't put out a Win32 build if he thought he could get away with it.

[Salv8 (sam)]

i have the unfortunate feeling that adobe and others will require people to use the store when installing their apps and won't allow for alternative ways to install said app

i would not be surprised to see visual studio be available only via the store, no more installer so people who use wine can't use it anymore.

11 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

I do wonder if Valve will embrace the Windows Store as well in the future..

considering they are building their own linux distro and are HEAVILY pushing linux as an alternative to windows for gaming. it doesn't seem likely since they are building their own ecosystem. it might happen but with how Microsoft has treated valve in the past, ya know with the threat of not allowing steam to run on windows (i couldn't find the tech news post about it but if ya google it you might find an article talking about it), it's very unlikely that it will.

[LAwLz]

This is what the store should have been from the beginning. 

UWP was shit and its a shame Microsoft wasted so much time and energy on it. 

 

Glad to see that it's slowly turning into something worth using. I hope that I'll one day be able to just get all my programs from the store. Hunting down installers from random websites and having each use their own update system is a pain in the ass and should have been fixed long ago. 

 

Doea anyone know the details of how the store will work for Win32 programs? Will it be able to do things like auto updates or will it mostly be a glorified installer downloader? 

[GoodBytes]

4 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Doea anyone know the details of how the store will work for Win32 programs? Will it be able to do things like auto updates or will it mostly be a glorified installer downloader? 

From what I can see, Microsoft says that if you package your application as MSIX, one can take advantage of the Store update system.

If you package it as EXE or MSI, like a traditional setup, then it is up to developer to have its own update system.

 

MSIX has been updated to no longer be locked to UWP or UWP wrapped Win32 applications.

It fully support Win32 applications.

 

Quote

MSIX is a Windows app package format that provides a modern packaging experience to all Windows apps. The MSIX package format preserves the functionality of existing app packages and/or install files in addition to enabling new, modern packaging and deployment features to Win32, WPF, and Windows Forms apps.

MSIX enables enterprises to stay current and ensure their applications are always up to date. It allows IT Pros and developers to deliver a user centric solution while still reducing the cost of ownership of application by reducing the need to repackage.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/overview

 

Quote

Should I package my traditional desktop app using MSIX, or stick with the installer I use today?

We want to make sure you have the ability to choose the packaging approach which makes the most sense for your app and your customers.

If you want to take advantage of the features offered by MSIX, like seamless install, updates, and uninstall, and incremental updates, then you can package your app as MSIX and publish it to the store. MSIX is our preferred way to package and distribute apps. You can learn more about it here.
 

You can also bring your own installer using our new program to publish traditional desktop apps. In this approach, you don’t submit a package to be stored in and distributed by the store. Instead, you provide a versioned URL to your .exe or .msi package on your website or content distribution network (CDN) while gaining the benefits of listing in the store catalog. As long as the installer supports silent mode, and the app and installer comply with store policy, there are no changes required. You can learn more about it here.

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-store/overview/

 

[JLO64]

As a person who got fed up with Windows, this is a great addition to the operating system as a whole! One of my favorite features on Linux are the many package managers out there and this seems like a real competitor to that. The real test for this store is going to be its adoption rate among non techie consumers.

[tim0901]

5 hours ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

i have the unfortunate feeling that adobe and others will require people to use the store when installing their apps and won't allow for alternative ways to install said app

i would not be surprised to see visual studio be available only via the store, no more installer so people who use wine can't use it anymore.

I can't see this happening anytime soon. Over 20% of Windows users are running a version that won't support the new store (aka older than Win 10) and devs aren't going to want to throw away that userbase. This percentage also doesn't include users whose PCs run Windows 10, but which aren't able to be upgraded to the latest version for whatever reason (such as those running the 32-bit edition that was officially dropped last year).

 

You can look to 32-bit as an example of this as well. Many developers still publish 32-bit versions of their programs alongside the 64-bit release, despite 32-bit Windows making up only a fraction of a percentage of their userbase these days. If these 32-bit app releases are still hanging around, I'm sure traditional installers will be around for quite a while yet.

 

I can see some devs trying it as an anti-piracy measure, but that hasn't exactly stopped anyone before.

[Doobeedoo]

Well quite a change, now to see more and how it will roll over time. Good to see less restrictions and also to see better simpler way to update too.

[Commodus]

This is really about optics more than anything. This doesn't really confer many advantages over running the EGS separately. Microsoft wants to pretend it's a champion of openness while paradoxically tightening control over Windows app distribution. A bit like Google's 2010-era "Android is open! Open open open!" facade — sounds good on the surface, falls apart under closer inspection.

[LAwLz]

18 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

From what I can see, Microsoft says that if you package your application as MSIX, one can take advantage of the Store update system.

If you package it as EXE or MSI, like a traditional setup, then it is up to developer to have its own update system.

 

MSIX has been updated to no longer be locked to UWP or UWP wrapped Win32 applications.

It fully support Win32 applications.

Yeah I read that MSIX now supports win32 programs. Do you know if they will have the same restrictions (basically run in an isolated container) as UWP has? I really like the idea of apps writing to their own virtual registry and having everything contained inside itself for clean uninstalls, but at the same time I don't like how locked down it makes programs. I want to be able to have a program read and edit memory from another program. I want programs to be able to inject their own overlays, or do advanced diagnostics and so on. 

 

If Win32 programs packaged as MSIX will have the same restrictions we know and hate from UWP, then I don't like it. There should be some middle-ground. Take the good parts from MSIX and the open-ness from MSI.

 

Also, I don't like the idea of allowing both MSI/exe and MSIX on the store. I get why Microsoft are doing it, but it will lead to a really fragmented and inconsistent experience. The Microsoft Store needs to be more than just a glorified launcher for installers. It should be a full blown package manager. In my ideal world, the Microsoft Store would be a pretty front-end for WinGet, and WinGet would be a proper package manager (which it is far from today, and allowing things like .exe files in the repo is one of the major reasons).

 

 

It feels like Microsoft had the chance to do something good and properly, but when it failed (because of stupid decisions on their part) they have now just thrown in the towel and just developed a really messy and clunky solution.

[GoodBytes]

16 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Yeah I read that MSIX now supports win32 programs. Do you know if they will have the same restrictions (basically run in an isolated container) as UWP has?

I am not sure on the container part. I need to look into it. But a limitation is that the setup is limited is customization. They can't have those ad programs like injecting on user who just click Next quickly unexpected programs, they can't use dark patterns (ironically), they can't provide options to the users, they can't customize each panel for multiple license agreements and such.... I think the default path is not customizable either.. I need to double check. Its basic, simple, that was the goal for MSIX. Oh and you can't do stream install like what VS (not Code) and Office provide.

 

Considering that all big software already have their own update systems. Switching to MSIX only adds work for them. Sure it  could benefits the user, but that is all. They win nothing. Maybe if security holes is discovered in their auto update system and 99% of its users got the app in the Store... maybe.. they'll consider switching in the next 20 years, but that is about it. 

 

Quote

I really like the idea of apps writing to their own virtual registry and having everything contained inside itself for clean uninstalls, but at the same time I don't like how locked down it makes programs. I want to be able to have a program read and edit memory from another program. I want programs to be able to inject their own overlays, or do advanced diagnostics and so on. 

Same. Ideally you want programs that uses the best solution and think about the user and not go "Oh they remove our software, that means no money... so screw them". See BlueStack as a great example.

 

Quote

Also, I don't like the idea of allowing both MSI/exe and MSIX on the store. I get why Microsoft are doing it, but it will lead to a really fragmented and inconsistent experience. The Microsoft Store needs to be more than just a glorified launcher for installers. It should be a full blown package manager. In my ideal world, the Microsoft Store would be a pretty front-end for WinGet, and WinGet would be a proper package manager (which it is far from today, and allowing things like .exe files in the repo is one of the major reasons).

Sure, but companies like flexibility even if they don't use it to not create more work when things needs to change by business. Is MSIX a selling point or not? It isn't. Maybe small/new software would like a turn key solution that MS provides and can offer an already made, secure and maintained auto updater, but  for dinosaurs apps, I don't see that changing

 

Quote

It feels like Microsoft had the chance to do something good and properly, but when it failed (because of stupid decisions on their part) they have now just thrown in the towel and just developed a really messy and clunky solution.

Agreed

[GoodBytes]

Epic Games Store should be available to all under Win11 Store.

Copy and paste URL bellow in your web browser address bar:

ms-windows-store://pdp/?productid=XP99VR1BPSBQJ2

 

Disney+ has arrived for both Win10 and 11 Store:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/disney/9nxqxxlfst89?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

Apparently, in the US at least, the Store has Disney+ integrated for direct streaming of movies from there.