Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 18 submissions in the queue.

Microsoft Adds Store App-Only Restriction as Option in Windows 10

posted by on Thursday March 02 2017, @02:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the the-garden-is-now-barricaded dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Microsoft has added a setting to Windows 10 that will let users restrict new software installation to only those apps hosted in the Windows Store. The option debuted in the latest version of Windows 10 Insider, the preview program which gives participants an early peek at the next feature upgrade as Microsoft builds it. That version, labeled 15042, was released Friday.

With the setting at its most stringent, Windows 10 will block the installation of Win32 software -- the traditional legacy applications that continue to make up the vast bulk of the Windows ecosystem -- and allow users to install only apps from the Windows Store, Microsoft's marketplace. Other settings allow software installation from any source, or, while allowing that, put a preference on those from the Windows Store.

Unless Microsoft removes them, the options will appear in the next Windows 10 feature upgrade, dubbed "Creators Update," which is to launch in March or April.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Microsoft Adds Store App-Only Restriction as Option in Windows 10 | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 35 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday March 02 2017, @06:12PM (1 child)

    by Pino P (4721) on Thursday March 02 2017, @06:12PM (#473970) Journal

    Before the smart phone and tablet, you needed a PC to get online. Now everyone has a smartphone in their pocket. Why build your application for one platform when you can target so many more?

    Because a flat sheet of glass isn't the ideal input device for all applications, and not everybody who carries a smartphone or tablet is also willing to carry the necessary input devices. For example, reading email on a smartphone is convenient, but writing more than a paragraph or so without a Bluetooth or USB OTG keyboard is painful. And plenty of video game genres are unplayable on smartphones without a Bluetooth or USB OTG keyboard or gamepad because the user ends up pressing outside the virtual gamepad buttons because he can't feel their edges to line up his thumbs.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday March 02 2017, @10:21PM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday March 02 2017, @10:21PM (#474153) Journal

    There is still a metric shit ton of productivity, gaming, and automation software on Windows that isn't going anywhere.

    You missed that part. My final point was the PC isn't going anywhere. Neither is Windows and Win32.