When you go on to the Microsoft store, every application there thus far has been UWP apps. These are Microsoft’s new way of creating apps for every Windows platform, be it Windows 10 or whatever Microsoft is calling their mobile platform these days. Moving forward now, Microsoft has finally released Project Centennial, their Desktop App Converter that allows desktop Win32 apps into the Windows Store.
The Desktop App Converter was first announced last year back at BUILD 2015. At that time, the Windows Store was smaller and Microsoft wanted developers to be able to easily port existing Win32 apps to place them in the store. With the Desktop App Converter, developers can now repackage their programs into a UWP form with few or no changes. This allows the addition of UWP features like their easy install and uninstall. It also ensures better Windows 10 compatibility without any major rework.
There are still major downsides to this method though. The Win32 apps do not get any of the new security features nor any of the sandboxing. Furthermore, the converted apps are still only compatible with x86 platforms. This means there may be even less incentive for developers to create native UWP versions of their apps if they can simply convert their existing ones to get onto the app store.
