Microsoft wants to facilitate the process of downloading applications that users carry out when they acquire a new computer, and will implement in Windows 11 a feature that has been present for years in iOS, macOS, iPadOS and Android: the possibility of restoring apps previously installed on other devices in a much faster way.
The new feature is coming soon to the Microsoft Store and will allow users to access a section called ‘Library’, where all the apps previously installed on other computers will be accumulated . From there, it will be possible to choose between restoring all the apps previously installed on another PC, or restoring just some of them. The Windows 11 Microsoft Store will also divide apps into categories to make searching easier.
Currently, the Windows 11 App Store does not include any similar option . So if users get a new device and want to download the apps they had on their old PC, they have to search for them manually.
This, according to Giorgio Sardo, general manager of the Microsoft Store, not only made it difficult and slowed down the process of migrating from a new Windows 11 computer , it also harms the developer, since the manual download could make the user forget about that app. . Sardo, in fact, says that the feature, in addition to “making it easy for customers to transition to their new PCs quickly and seamlessly,” will “help developers retain their customers without having to remind them to re-download their application”.
Windows 11 will soon add something that Apple and Google have been offering for years
The Windows 11 feature, mind you, could take a while to reach all users. It will be available, first of all, in the testing phase for those users registered in the Windows Insider program.
The possibility of restoring apps when changing computers, as we mentioned, has been available for some time in the different Apple and Google operating systems . macOS, for example, includes the ability to redownload apps previously installed on other devices through the App Store, in the user tab. This same feature is available on iOS and iPadOS. Again, in the user tab and, in this case, in a section called ‘Purchases’. Android, Google’s operating system, also includes a similar feature on Google Play.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is also working on new features for Windows 11. Among them, the ability to activate third-party widgets .