Microsoft to end its expanded 'Cyberpunk 2077' refund policy on July 6

Microsoft joined other retailers in offering an expanded refund policy for Cyberpunk 2077 because of its buggy release in December. The company allowed those who bought the game from the Microsoft Store to get a full refund. But now, Microsoft plans to place the game under its standard digital refund policy beginning July 6. That means when you buy the game, your sale is final, but you can apply for a refund, which Microsoft might grant you in some circumstances.

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New Facebook Messenger app is available on the Microsoft Store

Facebook released a new beta version of its Messenger app on the Microsoft Store. Now powered by Electron instead of OSMeta, the feature set is closer to the iOS and Android versions of the app. It works on x86 and ARM processors. The app features a clean look with light and dark mode, as well as the option to attach files. The update seems to be rolling out in stages, so you might need to be a bit patient if it hasn't made its way to you yet.

Source: Windows Central

Bug fix causes mass update of Microsoft Store apps

Noticed a bunch of your Microsoft Store apps update over the past few days? Well, it’s not a sudden onslaught of new features. Instead, Microsoft is addressing an issue within the app store. It’s caused users to run into error 0x800B0100 when they try to download apps. Palani Sundaramurthy, principal program manager lead on Developer & Partner Services at Microsoft, expounds, “We have tracked this issue to our submission workflow incorrectly signing certain apps. [We need] to re-process the impacted apps in order to alleviate the problem. While we have already re-processed a few apps, […] we’re working to ensure that every impacted app is fixed.”

These reprocessed apps are showing up as app updates and come with the minor version number of .1000. It seems to have fixed the problem and Microsoft says developers can now safely resubmit apps and have end users download these fixed versions.

Source: MSPowerUser

Microsoft removes Google Chrome installer from Windows Store for violating Microsoft Store policies

In order to combat the appearance of fake Chrome browsers on the Microsoft Store, Google just published a Google Chrome Installer app on the app store that basically redirected users to a download link to install the browser. Microsoft is having none of this and has taken down the app saying it violates their app store’s policies. According to a Microsoft spokesperson, they want apps to “provide unique and distinct value” and Google is welcome to do so as long as they “build a Microsoft Store browser app compliant with our Microsoft Store policies.”

This might be something Google won’t be interested in as The Verge points out. One of the big reasons is most likely related to restrictions on Windows 10 S that requires apps to use HTML and JavaScript engines that are provided by Windows 10. Google already has its own Blink rendering engine called Blink and it’s highly doubtful they’ll create a special app just to adhere to Microsoft’s Store policies. Google also can’t package its current desktop app into a Centennial Windows Store app either as Microsoft wants these apps to use Edge rendering engine. So, for now and possibly what you’ve already been doing, if you want Chrome on your Windows machine, you’ll need to launch that right from Edge browser first.