Windows Store accepts Desktop app listings?

Targets Windows
1

I am really enjoying my HP Stream 7. But while perusing the Windows Store, I stumbled across a few desktop apps. I was previously under the impression that only Modern (“Metro”) apps were allowed in the Windows Store, so this surprised me. (There is also a lot of Xbox stuff, which seems weird to see in the Windows Store, but what do I know?)

A quick Google search turned up this page on MSDN: Walkthrough: Desktop App Submission

I have not looked into this in great detail yet, but it appears that MS will let you list your Desktop app in the Windows Store, but will not handle the purchasing part. You’ll have to send customers to your own store to purchase.

I’m curious, has anyone tried this with a Xojo-made Windows app?

2

that is good to know @Paul Lefebvre …

3

There will be changes with Windows 10. On a desktop or notebook, Windows 10 will boot into desktop mode. In this mode, modern apps will run in their own windows on the desktop. It will not auto switch to the modern look. On a tablet, Windows 10 will boot into the modern tile mode. I believe will still run desktop app and switch into desktop mode.

With these changes, Windows Store will sell desktop apps directly from the store.

http://www.windowscentral.com/deleted-microsoft-blog-post-claims-windows-10-support-desktop-apps

4

[quote=170716:@Paul Lefebvre]I am really enjoying my HP Stream 7. But while perusing the Windows Store, I stumbled across a few desktop apps. I was previously under the impression that only Modern (“Metro”) apps were allowed in the Windows Store, so this surprised me. (There is also a lot of Xbox stuff, which seems weird to see in the Windows Store, but what do I know?)

A quick Google search turned up this page on MSDN: Walkthrough: Desktop App Submission

I have not looked into this in great detail yet, but it appears that MS will let you list your Desktop app in the Windows Store, but will not handle the purchasing part. You’ll have to send customers to your own store to purchase.

I’m curious, has anyone tried this with a Xojo-made Windows app?[/quote]

The Windows Store has accepted Desktop apps for quite a while.

Posted back in 2013 : https://forum.xojo.com/7750-windows-store

Since then, Microsoft has added Digicert as a supplier of digital code signing, so it is only $199 a year now, a reasonable amount for yet untested waters. I have half a dozen Metro apps already in the Windows Store, but sales are about 5 times less than the MAS for the same titles.

The Windows Store works only on Windows 8.x and is using the Metro UI. So I think listing a pure desktop app with the regular UI may be a risky business. Regular desktop apps used with the touch interface not only look old, but are also rather inadequate : controls are too small for touch (a finger is less precise than the mouse cursor), and things like Tab simply do not exist on a tablet. Worse, a desktop app does not trigger automatically the on screen keyboard, contrary to what happens with the Modern UI apps. So in effect, a desktop app on a tablet is close to unusable.

I am in the process of creating a touch enabled version of one of my Xojo made popular software titles which will have all the trimmings of a Modern API UI, so it works with tablets and integrates better in Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, and intend to have it listed in the Windows Store. I shall report on the progress.

5

Windows users are not in a habit of going to the Windows store for applications, especially desktop applications. I never purchase applications there. I don’t even visit the site, even out of curiousness. As far as I am concerned, it does not have any value added, and I can get what I want elsewhere. That there are users like me, may explain at least in part the slow sales you are experiencing on the Windows store.

6

For me with the MAS the value added is that all your updates are in one place.

7

I am not sure you are representative of the average Windows 8.x user. Neither am I. Anybody who has been using Windows for several years and knows where to find software is not a good prospect. Heck, I do not shop the MAS that often either.

I still have about a quarter of customers who purchase on my web sites rather than the MAS.

Customers who started with Windows 8.x pre-installed on their first machine will quite naturally use the Windows Store to look for software.

If you look primarily for touch enabled applications, the regular, hyper-fragmented, try before you buy, mostly desktop market is perfectly inadequate. I believe that is a new market that older apps are perfectly unable to satisfy.

On a tablet such as the one Paul uses, or the transformer or a Surface without a keyboard, regular desktop apps can be an imperial pain in the fondement without a physical keyboard. Typing Tabs or function keys is impossible with the modern keyboard, and one has to fetch the antiquated OSK to do so. On top of it, since desktop apps have never been conceived for virtual keyboards, all fields behind the on screen keyboard are inaccessible.

Think of it : how would your regular Mac OS X app work if it were possible to run it on an iPad ?

Windows tablets require software written specifically. I believe that is a new market which will expand, as tablets and touch enabled computers generalize. In an overcrowded market where small fish has to elbow with cargos, it can make all the difference. I intend to take advantage of that competitive edge, while older, more established firms still understand nothing about that new market.