As early as March of this year, there was news that Microsoft intends to close the Microsoft Store for the enterprise and education markets, because the company announced that starting from April 14th, users will not be allowed to purchase paid applications. Now, Microsoft officially confirmed that the Microsoft Store, which is suitable for the enterprise and education markets, is no longer supported on Windows 11.
For managed devices starting in the first half of 2022, customers will be able to use Microsoft Intune or its unified terminal management (UEM) solution to find and deploy applications to the devices they manage. For unmanaged devices, it can be deployed through the Winget tool in the Windows Package Manager. This will apply to all existing and new application types entering the redesigned Microsoft Store experience.
In view of the above, the Microsoft Store for the enterprise and education markets will be closed in the first quarter of 2023. Windows 11 will not support these portals, but administrators can still use UEM solutions to manage connections to their respective portals and use it to deploy applications to managed Windows 11 devices until the Store is completely retired in 2023.
The overall and simplified timeline for this evolution in commercial application deployment is summarized below.
- Windows Package Manager v1.0: generally available.
- Intune integrates with the Windows Package Manager service, your private application library, and the new Microsoft Store. The public preview version is expected in the first half of 2022.
- Integration of Intune with Windows Package Manager service, your private application library and the new Microsoft Store. The full listing is expected in the second half of 2022.
- Retirement of Microsoft Store for enterprise and education markets in Windows 10: Expected in the first quarter of 2023.
