The Windows app store has taken many forms over the years, first launching with Windows 8 in 2012 as the "Windows Store," a marketplace for "modern" apps that never fully materialized. The store was slowly updated, improved, and relaxed over the course of Windows 10's lifecycle, eventually being rebranded as the "Microsoft Store" we know today.
But it wasn't until 2021, with the launch of Windows 11, where the Microsoft Store really came into its own. Up until a few years ago, I almost never opened the Microsoft Store because it was ugly, slow, and didn't include most of the apps I needed to download. Now, the Microsoft Store is an entirely different beast, with a beautiful fluid UI and catalog of apps that covers everything I need to use on Windows.
