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May 27, 2022

Announcing the Microsoft Store App Awards Winners!

Since launching the new Microsoft Store on Windows last year, we’ve welcomed thousands of great desktop apps and games. We are excited to introduce the Microsoft Store App Awards and recognize select developers and apps. We’re excited to introduce the Microsoft Store Community Choice Awards, which are nominated by the community, and the Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards, which are apps recognized by Microsoft. Although gaming is always incredibly important to us and our customers, for these awards, we’re focused on apps.

Microsoft Store Community Choice Awards

Earlier this year, we asked you to nominate your favorite apps in the Microsoft Store on Windows, and then to vote on the qualifying apps earlier this month. Thank you for helping us to recognize these great apps in the Store!

Utility Category

The Utility category is to recognize apps that help automate tasks, diagnose issues, record of share your screen, navigate drivers, and more. When you use these apps, they are indispensable.

Winners

Utility category winner ShareX

Congratulations to the winners of the Utility category: ShareX and Speedtest by Ookla!Utility category winner Speedtest by Ookla

Runners Up

Torrex Lite

Utility category runner-up Torrex Lite

Fluent Screen Recorder

Utility category runner-up Fluent Screen Recorder

Finalists

The finalists were all nominated by the community, so be sure to use the links above to download these and try them out!

File Management Category

The apps in this category help manage files on your Windows PC, by viewing and sorting, editing metadata, converting, compressing, and much more. These are the ones you told us were the most important to you:

Winners

Congratulations to Files App and Rufus!

File Management category winner Files App

File Management category winner Rufus

Runners Up

8 Zip

File Management category runner-up 8 Zip

One Commander

File Management category runner-up One Commander

Finalists

File management is a key part of any productivity workflow, so be sure to try out these apps yourself!

Open Platform Category

Windows is an open platform for innovation. We know that not every customer uses Windows in the same way — some want to modify different parts of the UI or make some features more accessible for them. These are the apps you said turn Windows into your Windows.

Winners

Congratulations to the winners in this category: Auto Dark Mode, EarTrumpet, and ModernFlyouts!

Open Platform category winner Auto Dark Mode

Open Platform category winner EarTrumpetOpen Platform category winner ModernFlyouts

Runners Up

Lively Wallpaper

Open Platform category runner-up Lively Wallpaper

TranslucentTB

Open Platform category runner-up TranslucentTB

Finalists

We’re excited and humbled by the community participation for these awards. Thank you again for the great nominees, and for picking the apps which are the most important to you!

Finally, thanks to the developers of these apps! We love the diversity of technology used, and the teams who created them. From individual developers through to distributed projects, open source, and larger companies, you’ve shown that amazing, beautiful, and useful apps can come from development teams of any size and type.

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards

In addition to community choice voting, the Microsoft Store team selected the best apps for Creativity, Entertainment, Productivity, Social, and one for special recognition.  The Microsoft Store on Windows is home to many great apps and the store catalog continues to grow. Apps were evaluated and selected based on user experience, design excellence, app quality, and customer value. We’re proud to have all the apps we’re showcasing here today in the Microsoft Store on Windows.

Here are the apps we’d like to recognize:

Special Recognition

First, there’s one app we’d like to present for special recognition from the editors. The app is Talk for Me and it was designed to “give those without a voice, a voice.”

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards - Special Recognition: Talk for Me

We found this quote in the product description especially moving:

“I have ALS [Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis]. It took my voice and I have not been able to communicate with my loved ones. I bought an eye gaze device so could access my windows 8 tablet. I found Talk for Me. This app has everything that all the highly priced programs have. it is customizable and very easy to use. Customer service is top notch! I love it! I can finally speak to my family with Talk For Me!”

We love that the app embraces a simple, but extremely usable design for the target audience, and that it is so critical to its users.

Entertainment – Video

Whether it is for yourself or your family,  Our catalog is filled with so many great TV shows and movies.

The winner of the Video Entertainment category is Disney+!

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Winner- Entertainment and Video: Disney+

The two finalists for entertainment are:

Hulu for Windows

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Finalist - Entertainment and Video: Hulu for Windows

Tubi

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Finalist - Entertainment and Video: Tubi

Entertainment – Audio and Music

We love listening to music and podcasts, and the apps which enable that help make our days that much more enjoyable.

Our winner in this category is Spotify!

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Winner- Entertainment Audio and Music: Spotify

We’re pleased to share that the finalists, which both focus on podcasts, are:

FluentCast

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Finalist- Entertainment Audio and Music: FluentCast

Grover Pro

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Winner- Entertainment Audio and Music: Grover Pro

Next time you want to enjoy a little music or a podcast, you can’t go wrong with these apps, available now in the Microsoft Store.

Creativity – Graphics and 3D

There are so many great apps for creating 2D and 3D graphics, it was hard to choose. Any of the apps here could easily have won, but in the end, we had to pick.

For the winners, we had a tie between two well-loved apps. The first winner, in alphabetical order, is Canva!

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Winner - Creativity Graphics and 3D: Canva

The second is Paint.NET!

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Winner - Creativity Graphics and 3D: Paint.NET

In addition to the two winners, we had several other finalists with their own fans on the selection teams.

Adobe Express by Adobe, Inc.

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Finalist - Creativity Graphics and 3D: Adobe Express by Adobe, Inc.

Affinity Designer by Serif Europe Ltd

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Finalist - Creativity Graphics and 3D:  Affinity Designer by Serif Europe Ltd

Blender by Blender Foundation

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Finalist - Creativity Graphics and 3D:  Blender by Blender Foundation

Concepts by TopHatch, Inc.

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Finalist - Creativity Graphics and 3D:  Concepts by TopHatch, Inc.

These are all amazing apps in their own right, and equally worthy of your attention. Be sure to try them out in the Store today!

Creativity – Audio and Video

Digital storytelling and media creation are more important than ever before. To all the professionals, educators, musicians, and students out there, these are the ones for you.

Our winner for this audio and video creativity is Wondershare Filmora!

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Winner - Creativity Audio and Video: Wondershare Filmora

Here are the two finalists:

dJay Pro by Algoriddim

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Finalist - Creativity Audio and Video: dJay Pro by Algoriddim

Animotica – Movie Maker by Mixilab

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Finalist - Creativity Audio and Video: Animotica - Movie Maker by Mixilab

When the urge to be creative hits, you can’t go wrong with these apps.

Productivity

Windows is a great place to Get Stuff Done! Our pick in this category is LiquidText.

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Winner - Productivity: LiquidText

The two finalists differ greatly in what they do – both are amazing productivity apps:

Drawboard PDF

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Finalist - Productivity: Drawboard PDF

Shapr3D

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Finalist - Productivity: Shapr3D

Social

Social networking and communication have always been important parts of our daily lives, and never more so than today.

Our pick for Social is the ever-popular Discord!

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Winner - Social: Discord

The two runners up are also ones you will be familiar with

Telegram Desktop

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Finalist - Social: Telegram Desktop

WhatsApp Desktop

Microsoft Store Editor’s Choice Awards Finalist - Social: WhatsApp Desktop

We’ll reach out to all the winners soon.

We offer a warm thank you to the incredible Windows developer community, and to all the people who voted for the awards. We are very excited about these and other apps in the Microsoft Store, and hope you will enjoy them too!

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