M365 Changelog: Evolving the Microsoft Store for Business and Education

MC272078 – This message is for customers who are using Microsoft Store for Business or Education.

Microsoft is announcing exciting plans that bring together the manageability of Microsoft Endpoint Manager, the openness of the new Microsoft Store, and the flexibility of Windows Package Manager. These plans will enhance the new Microsoft Store experience that is coming soon to both Windows 11 and Windows 10.

Starting in the first half of 2022 you will be able to find applications from the entire breadth of the Microsoft Store catalog and deploy to your managed devices all from within Microsoft Intune, or your unified endpoint management (UEM) solution. This will include support for all the new (and existing) app types coming to the new Microsoft Store including Win32, .NET, Universal Windows Platform (UWP), and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs).

Additionally, Microsoft is announcing that the Microsoft Store for Business and Microsoft Store for Education will be retired in the first quarter of 2023. You may continue to use the current capabilities for free apps until that time. There will be no support for Microsoft Store for Business and Education on Windows 11.

Please expect a Message Center update with more information once the preview mentioned above is available for your evaluation.

Key points:

• Timing: Key milestones that Microsoft is working toward to improve the overall commercial app management experience:
  • Windows Package Manager v1.0: Generally available
  • Intune integration with Windows Package Manager app repository & the new Microsoft Store (Preview): Expected in the first half of 2022
  • Intune integration with Windows Package Manager app repository & the new Microsoft Store (general availability): Expected in the second half of 2022
  • Retirement of Microsoft Store for Business and Education for Windows 10: Expected Q1 2023
• Action: review and assess impact on your organization

How will this affect your organization:

If you are using Microsoft Store for Business or Education to manage and deploy applications to your organization, you will need to move to the new system before Q1 2023. 

What you need to do to prepare:

For unmanaged devices, you can use the new WinGet command-line tool within Windows Package Manager to find and install your apps.

The above changes will leverage Windows Package Manager, an open set of APIs that can integrate with any unified endpoint management solution. You organization can choose to integrate directly with these APIs to build your own solution to meet your specific needs, as well as for unmanaged devices. If you have internal line-of-business apps, you will be able to manage your own private app repository using Windows Package Manager as well.

Learn more:

For more information, see Evolving the Microsoft Store for Business and Education.