New Microsoft Store Policies

Staff

Thank you for your interest in developing products for the Microsoft Store. "Product" means content in whatever form submitted including, but not limited to, apps, games, titles, and any additional content sold or offered from within a Product. We’re committed to a diverse catalog of products for customers worldwide. Products on the Store must meet our certification standards, offer customers a truly useful and engaging experience, and provide a good fit for the Store.

A few principles to get you started:

Offer unique and distinct value within your product. Provide a compelling reason to download your product from the Store.

Don’t mislead our joint customers about what your product can do, who is offering it, etc.

Don’t attempt to cheat customers, the system or the ecosystem. There is no place in our Store for any kind of fraud, be it ratings and review manipulation, credit card fraud or other fraudulent activity.

Adhering to these policies should help you make choices that enhance your product’s appeal and audience.

Your products are crucial to the experience of hundreds of millions of customers. We can’t wait to see what you create and are thrilled to help deliver your products to the world.

If you have feedback on the policies, please let us know by commenting in our forum. We will consider every comment.

Change history for Microsoft Store Policies

Update to 10.1.1 requirements for product search terms.

Update to 10.1.1 with new policies pertaining to product metadata including title or name, icon, screenshots, descriptions.

Update to 10.2.2 adding clarifying language to current policy.

Update to 10.2.9, to add in a requirement that installer binary products (.msi or .exe) must be digitally signed with a code signing certificate that chains up to a certificate issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is part of the Microsoft Trusted Root Program.

Update to 10.8.7 to prohibit charging fees in the Store for open-source or other software that is generally available for free and restrict irrationally high pricing.

Update to 10.13.1 to remove requirement that games submitted via the Creators program must use XBL.

New 11.3.3 added policy prohibiting products whose intent is to provide content related to information, news, or current events in the real world from disseminating misinformation.

Update to 11.11 to add reference to use of International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) questionnaire during product submission to garner appropriate product rating.

Read more:

Microsoft Store Policies - Windows apps

Products on the Store must meet our certification standards, offer customers a truly useful and engaging experience, and provide a good fit for the Store.

docs.microsoft.com

Change history for Microsoft Store Policies - Windows apps

View a table showing the history of changes for Microsoft Store Policies with descriptions of additions, updates, and deletions for each change.

docs.microsoft.com

Click to expand...

System One System Two

OS: Windows 11 Pro for Workstations

Computer type: PC/Desktop

Manufacturer/Model: Custom self build

CPU: Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390

Memory: 64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)

Graphics Card(s): ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING (11GB GDDR5X)

Sound Card: Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)

Monitor(s) Displays: 2 x Samsung Odyssey G75 27"

Screen Resolution: 2560x1440

Hard Drives: 1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
4TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS

PSU: Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W

Case: Thermaltake Core P3 wall mounted

Cooling: Corsair Hydro H115i

Keyboard: Logitech wireless K800

Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3

Internet Speed: 1 Gbps Download and 35 Mbps Upload

Browser: Google Chrome

Antivirus: Microsoft Defender and Malwarebytes Premium

Other Info: Logitech Z625 speaker system,
Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
Galaxy S23 Plus phone