Have you found a particularly useful or novel app on the Microsoft Store? If so, tell us about it in the comments.AppStore stuff is sandboxed (that's a plus from a security and privacy standpoint).ĪppStore stuff is serviced through macOS update mechanism (that's a plus, because well integrated you'll likely won't ever notice it). There are a number of excellent apps in both stores, and the Mac user with Parallels Desktop can take advantage of both to find the perfect app for your needs. Video 1 shows some games from the Microsoft Store running in Parallels Desktop 14 on my MacBook Pro:Īnd Video 2 shows some of the 3D models available for the Sensavis Visual Learning Tool:Īs of today, there are about 800,000 Windows 10 apps in the Microsoft Store, as opposed to only about 11,000 in the Mac App Store. (See Figure 2.)įigures 3–5 show some other apps from the Microsoft Store running in Parallels Desktop on my MacBook Pro. You can predict whether an app in the Microsoft Store will run in Parallels Desktop by looking at its system requirements from within your virtual machine. (Age of Empires is my favorite game of all time, as I posted back in 2014.) I used every setting I know to get this app to run with acceptable performance, but in the end, I gave up. *Available for the iPhone®/iPad® in the Apple App Store.Īll of these apps run fine for me on my MacBook Pro® in a Windows 10 VM using Parallels Desktop 14-with the single exception of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. Here are some apps I have downloaded from the Microsoft Store, none of which are available on the Mac App Store: Games

Just as Apple has the App Store app, Microsoft has the Microsoft Store app. However, in this blog post, I will focus mainly on apps available from the Microsoft Store. In Apple® terms, it’s iTunes®, the Mac App Store, iBooks®, and the Apple Store® all rolled into one. The Microsoft Store is for all things to play or consume on Windows 10: movies, music, apps, books, fonts, extensions to the Edge browser, and even hardware. The Microsoft Store is accessible from Windows 8 or 10-but in all practical terms, this means onlvidy Windows 10, since Windows 8 is used so rarely these days.

If you’re also a Parallels Desktop® for Mac user, there’s another store you should check out: the Microsoft Store. All Mac® users know about the Mac App Store®, and most have probably used it to get an app or two.

Office for mac microsoft store