Together with first major update to Windows 10, Microsoft has released the Windows 10 Store for Business, a portal that provides a way to manage and distribute apps to Windows 10 devices in an organization.

The new release is aimed very much at the business user market. Microsoft says it has reached the point in the platform’s maturity where:

 “we can confidently recommend Windows 10 deployment to whole organizations”.

The company also says that Windows 10 is already actively running on more than 110 million devices including 12 million business PCs. Improvements in the updated version include the ability with Cortana to use your device’s pen to scribble a note in the Cortana Notebook, and have Cortana recognize the phone number, email address, and even physical address to help you set reminders. Cortana will also now keep track of your event and movie bookings, sending you reminders, as well as offering the ability to book and track an Uber taxi.

The push for the business market is behind two free services, designed:

“for IT to bridge from today’s complexity to the modern workplace, maintaining control and delivering reliable quality of services”

The first service is Windows Update for Business, which aims to make it easier for IT departments to control the deployment of updates within their organizations. Administrators will be able to set up device groups with staggered deployments, and to scale deployments with network optimizations.

The second service is Windows Store for Business. This can be used to manage Windows Store apps and internal line-of-business apps in one inventory. The store lets administrators choose between various distribution methods, including directly assigning apps, publishing them to a private page in Windows Store, or combining with existing app management software.

Once published, business users and admins will be able to search for apps, and acquire them individually or in volume. Licensing is handled by the store, with options for admins to assign, reclaim or reassign licenses as appropriate. If the company has its own custom written line-of-business apps, they can be privately distributed.

Developers working within an organization or as ISVs can create content specific to the organization. Store for Business refers to these apps as line-of-business (LOB) apps, and the devs that create them are LOB publishers. Once you've been invited to be a LOB publisher for a particular organization, you can submit the app using an Enterprise association to make the app exclusive to that particular organization.

You can sign up to the store at: 
Windows Store for Business

Store for Business is initially being made available in: 

(countries/regions)
Australia, Belgium (Dutch, French), Brazil, 
Canada (English,French),Finland, France, Germany, 
India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy,Japan, Mexico,Netherlands, 
Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (French, German), 
United Kingdom and United States.”

More Information

TechNet Windows Store For Business Overview

Windows Blog - First Major Update For Windows 10 Available Today

Windows Store for Business

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