Categories containing the largest number of apps are "Books and Reference", "Education", "Entertainment", and "Games".

The marketplace tracked product keys and licenses, allowing users to retrieve their purchases when switching computers.

[6] Further details announced during the conference revealed that the store would be able to hold listings for both certified traditional Windows apps, as well as what were called "Metro-style apps" at the time: tightly-sandboxed software based on Microsoft design guidelines that are constantly monitored for quality and compliance.

[9][10] Updates to apps published on the store after July 1, 2019, are no longer available to Windows 8 RTM users.

Web apps and traditional desktop software can be packaged for distribution on Windows Store.

Desktop software distributed through Windows Store are packaged using the App-V system to allow sandboxing.

In Windows 11, Microsoft Store received an updated user interface, and a new pop-up designed to handle installation links from websites.

Microsoft also announced a number of changes to its policies for application submissions to improve flexibility and make the store more "open", including supporting "any kind of app, regardless of app framework and packaging technology", and the ability for developers to freely use first- or third-party payment platforms (in non-game software only)[26] rather than those provided by Microsoft.

[31][32] Microsoft Store is the primary means of distributing Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps to users.

[39] Categories containing the largest number of apps are "Games", "Entertainment", "Books and Reference", and "Education".

In the United States, a Microsoft account can be linked to the Movies Anywhere digital locker service (separate registration required), which allows purchased content to be played on other platforms (e.g. MacOS, Android, iOS).

Microsoft Movies & TV is currently available in the following 21 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

The ability to open ePub e-books was removed during the shift to the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge.

These apps may not contain, support or approve, gratuitous profanity, obscenity, pornography, discrimination, defamation, or politically offensive content.

These include transparency over its rules, practices, and Windows' "interoperability interfaces", not preventing competing application storefronts to run on Windows, charging developers "reasonable fees" and not "forc[ing]" them to include in-app purchases, allowing access to the store by any developer as long as their software meets "objective standards and requirements", not blocking apps based on their business model, how it delivers its services, or how it processes payments, not impeding developers from "communicating directly with their users through their apps for legitimate business purposes", not using private data from the store to influence the development of competing for software by Microsoft, and holding its own software to the same standards as others on the store.

The announcement came in the wake of a lawsuits against Apple, Inc. and Google LLC by Epic Games over alleged anticompetitive practices conducted by their own application stores.

[59] The dashboard also presents a detailed breakdown of users by market, age, and region, as well as charts on the number of downloads, purchases, and average time spent in an app.

[61] As a result, Office was removed as an installable app from the store, and made to redirect to its website.