Microsoft removing Windows Apps with "Windows" in name is a mistake

Martin Brinkmann
Feb 19, 2018
Updated • Feb 19, 2018
Windows
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Some Windows application publishers who use "Windows" in the name of published apps received legal notifications from Microsoft in February 2018 to either change the name and branding of applications or have them removed from store instead.

Two German Windows sites, Dr. Windows and Windows Area, revealed that a law firm acting on behalf of Microsoft contacted them about their infringing apps Dr. Windows and Windows Area.

Martin Geuss, the publisher of the Dr. Windows application, was asked to comply in a day's time. He stated that he received the note on a Saturday and was asked to rename or remove the app until Sunday to comply with Microsoft's demand.

Both sites published their Windows apps in 2012 for Windows 8 initially and updated them throughout the years.

windows app copyright windows store

Microsoft removed the Windows Area application in the meantime from Windows Store. The Dr. Windows application is still available. Martin Geuss limited the application's regional reach to the German speaking countries Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Microsoft's law firm listed the United States as the country of the infringement and the move may have saved the app from removal.

It is not clear whether that is really the case though, or if the app will be removed in the coming days or weeks as well.

Another thing that is not clear is whether other application publishers with applications that have "windows" in the name were contacted by Microsoft as well.

A quick check in the Microsoft Store reveals several candidates for that. These can be grouped into two categories:

  • Apps that are named after sites that have Windows in the name, e,g, Windows Central, Next of Windows blog, or Dr. Windows.
  • Apps that have Windows in the name, e.g. SoundCloud for Windows, Announcements for Windows, or Windows 8 Cheat Keys.

It is arbitrariness if Microsoft's law firm contacted some application publishers in group one but not all of them.

Applications that use "for Windows" or similar in their name are probably safe but others may not be safe as it is not really clear, for example, whether "Windows 8 Cheat Keys" is an official app or not.

Closing Words

Microsoft is doing itself a disservice in my opinion. While the company may have the right to ask for the renaming or removal of applications with "windows" in the name, it seems that no one at Microsoft thought of the ramifications that this might have.

Microsoft is asking long-term Windows supporting sites -- some would say fan-sites -- to remove their long-standing apps from the Store. It is impracticable for these sites to rename the application as they'd remove the brand identity if they'd rename the apps.

It is almost impossible to confuse third-party applications created by Windows and Microsoft blogs with official applications by Microsoft.

One thing that Microsoft could do to improve the situation on its end is to add a "first-party" or "official" flag or marker to its own applications in the Store to make it clearer to customers.

It is arbitrary if Microsoft asked only some publishers but not others, and that is in my opinion even worse than asking all publishers.

Affected publishers may also wonder what comes next. Will Microsoft go after established publisher domains like drwindows.de or windowsarea.de next?

Apple and Google do the same by the way on the iOS and Android store.

Now You: What's your take on this?

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Microsoft removing Windows Apps with
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Microsoft removing Windows Apps with "Windows" in name is a mistake
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Some Windows application publishers who use "Windows" in the name of published apps received legal notifications from Microsoft to either change the name and branding of applications or have them removed from store instead.
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Comments

  1. Dan Donx said on January 15, 2023 at 10:29 am
    Reply

    What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?

    Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.

    If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.

  2. Dexter said on January 15, 2023 at 11:14 am
    Reply

    5. Rufus
    6. Ventoy

    PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.

    1. cdr said on January 15, 2023 at 3:32 pm
      Reply

      I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.

  3. sv said on January 15, 2023 at 6:40 pm
    Reply

    bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.

    ps…. time travelling?
    written. Jan 15, 2023
    Updated • Jan 13, 2023

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on January 16, 2023 at 5:49 am
      Reply

      This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.

  4. Anonymous said on January 16, 2023 at 8:24 am
    Reply

    Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.

  5. basingstoke said on January 16, 2023 at 11:18 am
    Reply

    I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:

    1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)

    2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)

    3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””

    4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows

    5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss

    Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:

    6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now

    Have I missed any group off this list?

    1. Heinz Strunk said on September 19, 2023 at 3:57 pm
      Reply

      You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.

      Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.

  6. ilev said on August 24, 2023 at 7:34 pm
    Reply

    Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update

    1. EP said on August 24, 2023 at 9:21 pm
      Reply

      only from windows update though
      KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site

  7. Anonymous said on August 24, 2023 at 11:05 pm
    Reply

    1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.

    2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.

    3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.

    This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
    Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.

    Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.

  8. john said on August 24, 2023 at 11:17 pm
    Reply

    Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.

    1. John G. said on August 25, 2023 at 12:08 pm
      Reply

      Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.

  9. EP said on August 25, 2023 at 3:10 pm
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215

  10. EP said on August 29, 2023 at 7:32 pm
    Reply

    check out the following recent articles:

    Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
    https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/

    BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/

  11. Leonard Britvolli said on August 30, 2023 at 10:33 pm
    Reply

    While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.

  12. sembrador said on September 5, 2023 at 9:32 pm
    Reply

    My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.

  13. EP said on September 6, 2023 at 11:55 am
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):

    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277

  14. Raphael Benzo said on September 24, 2023 at 9:52 pm
    Reply

    I try to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service (Connected Devices Platform User Services) but it wont let me disable it, any help will be greatly appreciated.
    Tank you for your help

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