Microsoft Desktop Bridge News Update: What Are the Advantages Of Converting Your App To UWP?

Microsoft has announced the first apps that will be available for conversion to Universal Windows Platform (UWP) under the Desktop Bridge, which was first revealed during the Build Conference on March 30-April 1.

According to the Windows blog, the apps included in the Microsoft Desktop Bridge are doubleTwist, Evernote, Voya Media, Virtual Robotics Kit, SQL Pro, Predicted Desire, PhotoScape, MAGIX Movie Edit Pro, korAccount and Arduino IDE.

They will become available "within the next few days" but only for Windows 10 Anniversary Update customers.

Alexander Koren wrote for Microsoft blog that there are several advantages of converting to UWP using the Microsoft Desktop Bridge.

First off, apart from the ability to publish your app on the Windows Store, conversion will allow a much seamless installation experience for your customers. Uninstalling an app is also made easy with the added benefit of leaving practically no trace behind.

"If you choose to move all of your app's functionality out of the full-trust partition of the app and into the app container partition, then your app will be able to run on any Windows 10 device," he wrote.

You can then slowly include the features of the UWP into the package of your apps such as app services or background tasks, among others.

Also converting to UWP through the Microsoft Desktop Bridge suggests you can be included in the "built-in licensing and automatic update facilities of the Windows Store. That means automatic updates for now on will be much more efficient considering that only those packages that are missing will be downloaded and installed.