Windows 10 Store Search Broken
The latest news on broken functionality in Windows 10 has recently come to light after a significant number of app developers protested that their apps cannot be readily located in the Windows 10 Store. Apparently, unless the user inputs the identical name of the app they are looking for into the search box, results are all over the place.
Leading the dev protest is Nikolaus Gebhardt, who has been writing apps since the early 2000s and is best known for a an open-source project called “Irrlicht”. Last week, Mr. Gebhardt grew so frustrated, he wrote a post called Why you should not develop apps for Windows 10 which went viral on Reddit:
Since Windows 10 arrived, the sales of all of my apps, which have been very low compared to other apps stores, have gone down significantly, nearly to zero (even the one I upgraded to Windows 10). And it is not surprising that this is the case: You cannot find my apps anywhere in the app store. Unless you know the exact name of my app, you won’t find it. You can type any of the keywords my apps have in their title, description or even in the list of keywords submitted to the store, and it won’t list my apps.
Microsoft has since announced that it will be working on correcting the problem. Now, this issue is probably not going to adversely affect too many users, especially hardcore desktop users, but it is yet another symptom of Microsoft’s poor planning and implementation.
Considering the whole concept behind Win 10 is a unified platform – “One product family, One Platform, One Store” – surely the success of the Windows 10 Store is integral to that end. And, given that the success of the Windows 10 Store is entirely dependent upon developers submitting their apps, why on earth would Microsoft implement a system which makes them almost impossible to find?
Where are the Edge Extensions?
Microsoft made a very similar blunder with its new Edge browser. The company has high hopes for Edge in the battle of the browsers and proudly announced (promised?) that Edge would include support for extensions, then released it without said support saying that it will come some 18 months down the track. Seriously!?
It’s becoming more and more apparent that Windows 10 was rushed out in a last ditch effort to grab a slice of the lucrative mobile market – we’ll just throw it out there and refine it as we go along. Long term, the plan may succeed, who knows, but surely it would been been in Microsoft’s best interests to make sure every feature was fully functional and properly supported before they released the new operating system? One thing for sure, it certainly would have been in the end users’ best interests. Here’s some news for you Microsoft; first impressions are important!
I like Windows 10, I really do, but if Microsoft is in any way serious about its ambition of taking on the world with this latest operating system, the company seriously needs to rethink its strategy (too late?). Who would have thought that when Microsoft sprouted about “Windows as a service” what they really meant was, near enough is good enough and we’ll fix it later.
I don’t know how Microsoft gets away with trying to sell people defective material. It’s disgusting.
“Who would have thought that when Microsoft sprouted about “Windows as a service” what they really meant was, near enough is good enough and we’ll fix it later?” (I added the question mark.)
Assuming that wasn’t meant to be a joke the answer is everybody who has used Microsoft products since and including the days of DOS when they couldn’t even be bothered to put in a text reader despite the existence of many freeware ones until Version 5.0 by which time everybody who knew anything was using Vernon Buerg’s “List”. They should have bought List from him and integrated it into DOS. I assume that you have forgotten Windows ME, VISTA, and Windows 8. Windows 7 was the best OS that they ever put out and now they’re trying to get rid of it with “recommended updates” and other devious ploys. I want to build a Skylake computer so I’ll have Windows 10 forced on me. Classic Shell anybody?
Of course I haven’t forgotten Windows ME, Vista, and 8. That’s more of a presumption than an assumption.
The last line was merely, I thought, a nice way to close out the article. The inference being that “Windows as a service” tends to suggest something new/innovative when, in reality, it has proven to be just more of the same.
Another half-baked operating system by Microsoft. Who would have thought? Everything they have ever put out has been half-baked. They rely on users to provide fixes.
“One product family, One Platform, One Store” … It was George Santayana who said, “Those who cannot learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” It sounds as if nobody at Microsoft ever heard of the concept of the Procrustean bed.
Procrustes was the gatekeeper on the road to Mount Olympus in ancient Greece. Travelers would have to spend the night in his gate cottage, sleeping in a bed he provided. The bed was a fixed size (One product family, one platform, one store…”). If the traveler was too short for the bed, Procrustes would stretch the traveler on a rack until he fit. It he was too long, he’d chop off the feet until they fit. (In those days, it paid not to be too tall!)
Clearly, Microsoft hasn’t learned the concept of mass customization… or as Burger King’s ad jingle used to say, “Have it YOUR way…”
Because it tries to be all things to all people, Windows 10 deserves to die an unnatural death. I went BACK to Windows 7, where I will stay until MS no longer supports it—at which time I’ll bite the bullet and make the switch to Apple OSx.
Why would Windows 10 be able to search apps, since Windows 7 is not even able to search files on the desktop ?
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/ecbecc00-f3e7-429f-87cd-8900fc313add/windows-7-search-does-not-return-file-contents-continued
http://mfctips.com/2012/08/02/windows-7-search-explained/
I can’t imagine why you like Win 10, let alone, admit it. It’s no where near as good as 7 and much harder to use. And most of the changes were made for no good reason other than to make them different. The best feature that I use regularly in Win 7 is the photo editor in Windows Essentials. Where is it? Nowhere, of course. And the fact is, there is no other software, free or paid, that has the same functions and is anywhere as easy to use and and works as well. What would it have cost MS to simply make it an app for Win 10? I agree with others, I’ll cling to Win 7 as long as possible and then migrate to Apple, much as it will pain me to do it. Win 10 is a dead end, just like 8 was. Maybe bankruptcy will make MS see the light.
And I can’t imagine why you feel you have the right to be so bloody rude. Operating systems are entirely subjective, in the same way that books, movies and TV shows are subjective. Just because someone has a different opinion to YOU, doesn’t necessarily make them wrong or you right.
FYI: Windows Essentials is still available for Windows 10, including Photo Gallery. I’ve installed Windows Essentials on two of my Windows 10 systems without issues. It works just fine. Goes to show just how much you don’t know about Windows 10.
There was nothing rude about my reply, nor was there meant to be. As you say, it’s subjective, and I simply am voicing my opinion of Win 10.
As to Photo Gallery, you’re right and I’m glad I mentioned it. It still took half an hour and 3 restarts to actually find the program, but it did work, even though it’s a slightly different version than I use every day. I had gotten the impression that it was out of Win 10 from something I read on a Windows blog or tech site before 10 was released, and obviously, it was wrong.
As to David Hartsock’s comment, I think nothing could be farther from the truth. What MS SHOULD have done is develop a separate OS for mobile devices. I’m sure they could have made the GUI such that Windows and the mobile OS would look and function very similarly from the user’s point of view.
No, you didn’t. You ridiculed MY opinion of Windows 10.
If you are unable to see how that is rude then I’m afraid there’s not too much hope for you Don.
I don’t find anything rude about Don’s comment. I disagree with him on one thing. I don’t think bankruptcy will make MS see the light unless this would force MS to hire a turnaround CEO (preferably from outside the industry). The powers that be there are too full of themselves.
I like it too. 🙂
I beg to differ. The changes were necessary for Windows to continue. PC sales are declining and mobile devices are growing by leaps and bounds. Microsoft needed an “in” into the mobile market and the easiest (and probably smartest) method would be a version of Windows. Now, with Windows 10, they have a universal operating system that will work on PC, tablet, and phone while presenting a similar user experience across all devices. I would have done the same.
Have you tried to install it? While I haven’t tried it I see no reason why it wouldn’t install on Windows 10. OK, just installed Windows Essentials on Windows 10 and the only issue was the .Net framework version 3.5, which it downloaded and installed as part of the installation, so Essentials isn’t an issue.
I think their biggest mistake is the one-size fits all thing. What renders nicely on a gadget, does not render nicely on my PC. Mobile devices, made for email, social media, games, and such is very different than working with spreadsheets, using serious word processing functions, and using data bases. Why NOT design an OS for the desktop? Businesses use them. Many people still prefer them.
Don’t get me started on The Store.
My biggest complaint, however, is the lack of control over the system. If I had Windows10 installed, I could shut down my computer at night and wake up to an entirely unrecognizable system the next morning. I want control over my applications and the way things look. That shouldn’t be up to me, not Microsoft.
Uh, too bad there isn’t a way to edit your own posts here. Now I’ve embarrassed myself and can’t fix it.
That SHOULD be up to me, not Microsoft.
“I can’t imagine why you like Win 10, let alone, admit it.”
Whether one likes W10 or not is a matter of opinion but the fact of reality is that every user running W7, W8 or W8.1 will eventually have to decide whether to run the latest Windows or move on to something else or learn how to setup a PC with multiple boot Windows.
The writers on DCT try to give a very broad interpretation and will even offer some very good advice on different topics, and I know personally that not all of them will agree with everything that W10 or MS is trying to do, but that still doesn’t change the reality of changes that will come.
I can’t say if W10 is botched but I have installed it on several PC’s that were diffidently on their last leg. Daniel.
I’m happy to see others have reverted to older versions of Windows. I’ll be junking 10 for 8.1 next month on two computers. So an unknown reason I cannot get new updates installed, thus the computer must undo the changes and I reboot to my previous state (not being updated). I’ve tried countless items to solve this mystery, so it’s more of a security measure. I was very happy to receive the FREE upgrade to 10, but it’s more pain and less gain. There was/is nothing wrong with 8.1, so 10 will be gone very soon, Mindblower!
Microsoft appears to be too full of its own hubris, mistaking arrogance for knowledge.
I have 7 and plan on keeping it until my PC gives up the ghost. Even then, I plan on having a local computer shop build a new PC with 7, if 7 is still available and 10 has not become what it should be (which I have a feeling that MS will rename the improved OS, just Vista.1 is called 7, because 10, like Vista, has such a bad name).
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What are you trying to do, Cornell?