Extensions are one of the most important aspects of web browsers. Thanks to them we can add all kinds of functions that are not available as standard to improve their functionality. Chrome, the most used browser, has its own store, the Chrome Store, from which to download these extensions. Mozilla, with Firefox, the same, has its add-on store to download these extensions. But what about Edge? It also has its store, but in the face of Windows 11, Microsoft wants to revolutionize the way to download and install these extensions.
The Windows 11 store is going to be everyone’s store for everything. Microsoft wants to enhance its digital content platform by allowing developers to upload their applications to it, whatever they are (and without charging commissions), in addition to making room for games and Android applications, which can also be downloaded from This store. In addition, Microsoft has just announced a new type of content that we will be able to download from this platform: Edge extensions.
The most complete store to power Windows 11 and Edge
The new Edge is based on Chromium and therefore is compatible with Google Chrome extensions. However, Microsoft wants to have its own extension store, with add-ons specially designed for your browser to avoid possible compatibility problems. Until now, Microsoft imitated Google and Mozilla by allowing users to download extensions from their own website. However, in order to deliver a unified Microsoft Store experience, this is set to change shortly. And it is that these extensions are going to make the leap to a specific section within the new windows 11 store.
With this, Microsoft wants to give more visibility and publicity to your browser, in addition to facilitating (at least in theory) the search and download the add-ons from this store. The first extensions, Outlook and LastPass, are already available within this store. And, little by little, the number will grow.
At the moment it is not known how Microsoft will make this change. But the most logical thing is that the company automatically migrate all the extensions of its current website to the Store without the developers having to do anything else. Anyway, the current web store is likely to continue to work, mainly because Linux and macOS users do not have access to this Store.
Repeating the mistakes of the past is a bad idea
It is not the first time that Microsoft allows downloading browser extensions from the store. The classic version of Edge already allowed you to do that in the early days of Windows 10, and it was a failure for many reasons. The main one of all is that developers want a simple platform to upload and publish their extensions. The Chrome Store is a very simple website for this, just like the add-on store by Mozilla. But the Windows Store is not, neither for developers nor for users.
Microsoft may simplify it so that everyone can use it in the best possible way, but we have a second problem: malware. If the Windows 10 store is already full of fake and very low quality apps, allowing extensions to arrive is not a good idea. It has already happened to Mozilla that, due to lack of control, it has had serious problems with rogue and malicious extensions, and now the same thing is going to happen to Microsoft.
For this new extension store to be successful, Microsoft must greatly simplify its use, both for users and developers. Plus, have much more comprehensive controls that allow us to use this store, and download all kinds of applications, programs and extensions, without being in danger.
