Microsoft is bringing more of its biggest apps to the Windows 11 Microsoft Store, and the latest additions are Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio Community 2019. Windows 11 testers can download the two apps for free from the Microsoft Store, and this should make it more convenient for developers to get their hands on the apps when the OS starts shipping later this year.
Hey y’all! Welcome @VisualStudio Community 2019 *and* Visual Studio @code to the new Windows Store! Both FREE and available to Windows Insiders right now! Interested in publishing your Win32 App? Check out https://t.co/HUDLwIJzY1 pic.twitter.com/MifCbd6hzt
— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) August 25, 2021
With Windows 11, Microsoft will allow all developers to submit unpackaged Win32 apps to its Store, and this should help to make the Microsoft Store the easiest way to discover and install apps on a Windows 11 PC. Visual Studio was one of the big apps that Microsoft said were coming soon to the Windows 11 Store, along with Microsoft Teams, Disney+, Adobe Creative Cloud, Zoom and Canva.
The Microsoft Store has been around for almost 10 years, making its debut with Windows 8 at a time when Microsoft pushed developers to create Metro-style apps for touchscreen PCs. However, Metro apps and UWP apps from the Windows 10 era never reached significant momentum, and Microsoft finally realized that legacy Win32 apps are what Windows users really want to see on the Microsoft Store.
It will likely take some time before we see more big names coming to the Windows 11 Store, and the app also remains a work in progress. Microsoft is also working to bring Android apps on Windows 11 via a partnership with the Amazon App Store, but this integration is still nowhere to be seen in the latest Windows 11 Insider builds.
