Top 10 features users want in the Microsoft Store

Windows 10 and 11 are (in)famous for frequent prompts asking to provide feedback about various parts of the operating systems. Users who care enough can share their thoughts by answering those prompts or sending feedback directly using the Feedback Hub app. Such posts allow everyone to see what features and changes are the most popular and desired across the Windows 10 and 11 user base.

The "Top 10 features people want" series has already covered Word, Teams, OneDrive, and Outlook, and now it is time to see what users want Microsoft to do in the Microsoft Store. Oddly, crickets sounds are Microsoft's dominant reply. The company often provides comments in Feedback Hub, but even the most upvoted posts about the Microsoft Store have the mere "We have got this."

1. Add the option to uninstall an app from the "Library" section - 4,900+ upvotes.
   You can open, share, rate, and pin apps to Start/taskbar, but not uninstall. Microsoft thinks you are more likely to want to open a particular app from the "Library" section than uninstall it, which is questionable logic.
2. Add the option to hide or remove apps in the "Library" section - 3,200+ upvotes.
   The Microsoft Store is not new, so there are long-term users with hundreds of apps/games. To keep their libraries tidy, such users may want to hide or remove some apps.
3. Make it easier to see the recently updated apps - 2100+ upvotes.
   The Microsoft Store has a single "Library" section, where it keeps all the apps you own alongside the recently updated apps. The former are marked as "Purchased on" and the latter as "Modified on". We cannot tell why Microsoft does not want to separate these sections and use proper wording to highlight the recently updated apps (how a regular user should know what "Modified on" means). It is a particularly puzzling situation when you consider the fact that you can sort the library using various filters, such as "Apps", "Games", "Movies & TV", and even "Included with the device".
4. Fight scammy and fake apps more actively - 290+ upvotes.
   The situation with fake and scammy apps is nowadays less depressing than a few years ago, and Microsoft seems to be better at taking down parasite apps. Still, it is relatively easy to stumble upon "crapps" that abuse popular names for easy money. Do you want a "Google Chrome tutorial" for $9.99 $1.99? Do not miss a hot deal! When preparing this article, I even spotted a fake app in a "Specials" collection. Microsoft cannot get rid of all unwanted apps, but it can do better by at least not recommending them to users.
5. Add tabs to the Microsoft Store - 100+ upvotes.
   It is hard to tell why would someone needs this. Still, more than a hundred Windows users think the Microsoft Store should support tabs. Perhaps, tabs in the Microsoft Store might come in handy when you search for something and want to compare several apps. A tabbed UI is coming soon to File Explorer, so it might also come to the Microsoft Store (highly unlikely).
6. Add a better section for changelogs - 100+ upvotes.
   The Microsoft Store has a section called "What is new in this version", but it only shows details for the latest update, and many developers do not use it. Unless the app has a built-in "What is new" system, good luck figuring out what has changed in the latest release, not to mention checking older releases.
7. Add the date of the last update - 100+ upvotes.
   Technically, Microsoft has addressed this feedback. The new Microsoft Store website Microsoft launched in March 2022 lets you see the date of the last update. Unfortunately, very few Windows users know about that website, and the only date the Microsoft Store shows is the release date. But do you care when Facebook published its app? It is one of many basic things Microsoft should have figured out during ten years of running its app store.
8. Per-app auto-update settings - 40+ upvotes.
   This might not look that important or obvious, but the suggestion to add per-app auto-updates has some sense. The Microsoft Store now hosts all sorts of apps, including WSL and Windows Terminal, and auto-updating such apps can terminate without notice processes running in the background. This is already possible in the Google Play Store too.
9. Make the Store less confusing - several posts.
   When opening the Microsoft Store section in Feedback Hub, the first thing you see is a massive list of users complaining about cryptic errors, such as 0x80070005 and similar. Do not even try googling how to fix these, not to mention what those errors mean. The only somewhat reasonable error message we saw in the Microsoft Store is "Something happened on our end", which is not helpful either.
10. Better in-app purchases indication - several posts.
    The Microsoft Store does not let you preview what in-app purchases a particular app offers. Of course, you cannot list all IAPs (some apps and games have hundreds of them), but you can provide a preview (Apple's App Store lets you see subscriptions and in-app purchases on a store listing). This would help users better understand what they are about to download and stay away from projects with overly aggressive monetization.

The Microsoft Store is a much better and more developer-friendly place than ever before. The most recent policy changes attract new developers and fill the store with popular, previously unavailable apps. With more users getting more apps from the Microsoft Store, Microsoft must address some basic features still unavailable in its marketplace. If the company needs a source of inspiration, it can just fire up Feedback Hub and open the Microsoft Store section.

What do you think about this list? Does this feedback make sense to you, or do you believe other Microsoft Store features should be prioritized?

Top 10 features users want in the Microsoft Store