According to a Friday media report, the Microsoft Store for Business, formerly known as the “Windows Store for Business,” is on the software deprecation chopping block.
That thumbs-down view comes from veteran Microsoft reporter Mary Jo Foley, who cited unnamed sources. Foley’s sources had suggested that Microsoft could pull the plug as early as this June for both the Microsoft Store for Business, as well as the Microsoft Store for Education.
Here’s how Foley expressed it:
It does sound as though the team that owns the digital stores has decided that the Store for Business and Store for Education definitely will be deprecated. I’ve heard talk that the end of the current fiscal year, meaning June 30, 2020, is currently the planned deprecation deadline, though I am not sure if is the intended date for informing customers or date for actually axing the Store for Business/Store for Education. (My guess is Microsoft will give business and education users more than a few months’ notice.)
The Microsoft Store for Business is a Windows 10 capability that lets organizations distribute Windows 10 applications to end users. Unlike the commercial Microsoft Store portal for downloading consumer apps, the Microsoft Store for Business permitted the adding of custom line-of-business Windows 10 apps by “sideloading” them to the store.
According to Foley’s account, Microsoft is contemplating some other way than using the Microsoft Store for Business to signal that apps can be trusted by organizations. Typically, Microsoft vets any commercial apps that land in its Microsoft Store for consumers.
Microsoft’s Store plans for organizations date back to November 2014. However, those plans started to gel in the next year. Foley noted that Microsoft hasn’t published any updates on the Microsoft Store for Business since October 2018.
