Windows phones have been a thing of the past for ages now and it’s about time Microsoft decided to kill features on it.
The software giant has quietly shut down the Microsoft app store on the Windows 10 mobile platform, taking away one of the core functionalities of the long-forgotten OS. This marks the end of the Windows 10 mobile platform and the classic generation of Windows phone systems. The first phone to feature this OS was the Nokia Lumia 950 back in 2015.
Now that the app store has shut down, the homepage is no longer accessible and the download pages for the app don’t load properly anymore. The app details page is also facing intermittent issues.
The decrease in functionality is a consequence of Microsoft’s choice in December 2019 to discontinue support for all Windows 10 Mobile devices. This decision aligned with the closure of the Windows Phone 8.1 store during the same period.
Even though device support has been terminated, the Microsoft Store app store continued to operate. Microsoft had assured users that while the operating system would not receive additional updates, the app store would persist, with app and software support left to the discretion of developers and OEMs.
However, some good news for the remaining 4 Windows phone users is that there is still a way to make the Microsoft Store work. Users have pointed out that installing the latest offline package for the app store fixes the problem, though keep in mind that it might only be a temporary workaround.
That being said, Microsoft is also probably going to kill off more Windows 10 mobile features eventually and it is advisable to upgrade to a newer device.
