Are the days of Windows UWP applications numbered?

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Microsoft has big plans when it released the Windows 10 operating system: make customers forget about Windows 8, reach 1 billion devices running the system in record time, and establish a new application platform and Store.

The platform was renamed several times, you may have heard the terms Metro apps, Windows RT apps, Microsoft Store apps, Windows Store apps, Modern apps, or Universal Platform (UWP) apps.

Microsoft limited availability to the Windows 10 platform which impacted the success of the platform significantly as it excluded the majority of Windows customers from using these apps.

UWP introduced some long awaited changes such as a central repository (the Store) that was used to distribute applications and update them. Problem was, Win32 were not supported, and there was little in terms of value proposition to convert Win32 applications to UWP apps, especially in the beginning.

Microsoft promised that UWP applications would offer better performance and security than their non-Store counterparts but it offered a rough experience especially in the beginning. Microsoft had to clean up the Store multiple times and improve it.

The Desktop App Converter was created to assist developers in converting Win32 applications to the UWP platform.

The company limited certain Windows 10 features, e.g. inking, to UWP applications to put additional pressure on developers to get their apps converted or created as UWP applications in first place.

When VLC launched its UWP app in 2016, it was certainly one of the best media players available in the Microsoft Store at that time (and still is). The desktop version of VLC offered more features and was more powerful than the Store version on the other hand, and there was little reason to use the Store app instead of the desktop version. Paint.net is another example.

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