The new version of the Store resembles the new ideals of Microsoft. 'Whether you've already built it, or are building it now.' 'We want you to be able to bring any technology, the technology you love, to the store,' Chief Product Officer Panos Panay said. Not long ago, every bit of that would have seemed impossible.

Users will be able to use a Microsoft Store to download an Amazon Store to download Google apps onto their Microsoft devices. Here's just how crazy this gets: Microsoft is also bringing Android apps to Windows, through the Amazon App Store, which is in the Windows Store. It's a total inversion of the app store model, swapping a carefully-curated, walled garden for a pure discovery engine. Microsoft is adding some curation and editorial content, but relinquishing almost all control of the apps in the store. Developers don't have to use Microsoft's payment tools they can choose how their app is updated they can host their app any way they want to. Almost any app that will run on Windows is now welcome in the store, regardless of how it's compiled or created. It's meant to be lighter and faster, in part to take on Chrome OS devices that have eaten Windows's market share in recent years.īut if there's one feature that has the potential for true industry-shaking impact, it's the new Microsoft Store. Widgets and feeds make multitasking easier, and a customizable feed surfaces more information more quickly. It comes with lots of performance benefits, like smaller updates and better search. (Though users won't have to dig too far to get to those old-looking interfaces, an unfortunate side effect of Microsoft's commitment to legacy support.) It integrates Teams, and communication in general, deeply across the OS. Much of Windows 11 is just a modernization of the operating system, with softer, rounder designs and a cleaner overall interface. That means improving connections between devices, connections between users across platforms and connections between developers and users. If someone's PC is their main machine, the powerhouse around which their computing lives orbit, Microsoft wants to make Windows into a better hub. 'This is the first version of a new era for Windows.' Inside Microsoft, the underlying mantra of that generation seems to be a single word: connection. 'It's the beginning of a new generation,' he said, including everything from the OS to the store to the browser. Microsoft's Satya Nadella framed Windows 11 as a broad rethinking of what Windows can be. But while this may be called Windows and still look like Windows and still run Windows apps (OK, yeah, it's still Windows), it's clear that Microsoft is steering its operating system in a new direction.

Not that long ago, Microsoft was calling Windows 10 'the last version of Windows.' Technically, that wasn't true: The company launched Windows 11 on Thursday.

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