No one uses Microsoft Store because its essential apps are unpopular choices, users agree

And they’re not entirely wrong!

4 min. read

Published onMay 13, 2024

published onMay 13, 2024

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Even though Microsoft has released dozens of updates to the Microsoft Store, effectively making itfaster,smarter, and moreintuitive to users, many of them still question the platform’s popularity and practicability.

In one of thelatest rants on Reddit, Microsoft Store is analyzed from the perspective of its Essential Apps panel, and many users agree the platform is a mess.

Many say that the essential apps, which are supposed to enhance the experience of using Windows, are nothing but a bunch of useless social media platforms, and apps Windows users won’t probably even open.

This is the reason no one takes the Microsoft Store seriously. The “Essential apps” they choose to advertise on the homepage are 3 social media apps and the useless Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The Reddit user then posted a screenshot of their Microsoft Store homepage, and the Essential Apps panel featured TikTok, Adobe Acrobat Reader, LinkedIn, and Threads, as the first 4 apps.

With that in mind, we wanted to take a closer look and find out if Microsoft Store’s Essential Apps are essential enough, and the answer is… no, not really. So, this rant is justified.

Let us explain: Microsoft says the essential apps are there to enhance the Windows experience, so, these apps must be those we use on a daily basis, on our laptops. For example, Facebook Messenger can be an essential app, as we all spend a lot of time on Facebook, and communicate with friends, and family.

WhatsApp is another essential app, for the same reasons, and the ability to connect your phone to your desktop device to easily catch up on friends while doing other tasks is quite useful.

Spotify, Wikipedia, Skype, Netflix, or Disney+ can also be essential apps, especially when you want to listen to some music, or watch something.

The thing is that Microsoft Store includes these apps in the panel, but users have to slide over and over to find them. For instance, we had to slide 6 times until we found WhatsApp, and 7 times until we found Skype, which are two of the most popular apps for desktop devices, and communication.

On the other hand, when we first opened the Microsoft Store, the Essential Apps panel displayed the following apps: TikTok, Adobe Acrobat Reader, LinkedIn, Threads, BreeZip, and Adobe Photoshop Elements.

I’ll give you that, Adobe Acrobat Reader is useful, but why is Microsoft choosing to display it when the company tells you Edge is the recommended PDF reader on Windows, we don’t know.

The same goes with BreeZip. Windows already has the native ZIP reader, which is extraordinaryin its own right.

As for the other ones, Threads, TikTok, or LinkedIn. The first two are much more intuitive on mobile phones, while LinkedIn can be easily accessed from the browser.

Adobe Photoshop Elements? Sure, butWindows Photos App, or evenPaintshould be more than enough to do the job. And we all know Photoshop is not entirely user-friendly.

Microsoft might want to reevaluate the concept of essential apps in regard to user preferences, and if Microsoft Store can already handle AI capabilities, the Redmond-based tech giant can enhance it to take into account users’ activity and showcase relevant suggestions.

Otherwise, an essential app is too strong of a word for an app such as TikTok, which is the first suggestion of the panel.

What do you think about it?

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No one uses Microsoft Store because its essential apps are unpopular choices, users agree