So…yeah. Seems MS, in their endless wisdom has decided to rename their virtual desktop software, called before as “Remote Desktop” (and good luck trying to find issues with that that are not related to the old RDP tool MTSC.exe) to… “Windows App”. Perfect. Now everything will look like everything, and there’s no way to ever try to search for help for it. Next in line, I guess they can call it just “App”. I’m sure that will help everyone.
Ed Zitron wrote a blog post I’ve been thinking about, where he said that a lot of decisions are made by “business idiots” now. People that don’t really use or understand the product, and don’t really understand the users or their needs. It’s an interesting read, even though the guy is rather verbose: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/
I remember Noam Chomsky talking about this a number of years ago. It’s true. We don’t want technocrats, but worthless dumbfucks are also quite scary.
zitron is godly
Thank you so much for posting this. I already liked Ed’s work but this one was a cut above and it’s going to be marinating in my head for the foreseeable future.
Not to be confused with windows apps, the branded name for UWP apps.
UWP has been deprecated for some time now. https://www.thurrott.com/dev/258377/microsoft-officially-deprecates-uwp
as it pushes the desktop-focused Windows App SDK (formerly called Project Reunion) and WinUI 3 as the future of Windows application development.
I didn’t know there was a distinction between these and UWP. In any case, I’m pretty sure that these are also called windows apps.
WinUI apps are packaged in a similar fashion to traditional applications. I can deploy an exe or MSI installer, UWP required msix (store). WinUI is a framework for the more modern user interface in Windows 10/11, replacing WinForms and WPF.
Organizations never adopted the store model so it was scrapped for the most part.
I was on about the Windows App SDK part (unless I’m wrong about that too), but I included the rest of the line.
Oh, I can help remotely… I just need you to open Windows App.
Which app?
Windows App.
I get that, I’m running Windows, but which app?
Windows App.
Look, are you being smart? I’m in Windows, say I click on the Start button, which app do I click on?
Windows App.
Allright you, let’s say the app is already running…
Sure.
And I press CTRL-ALT-DEL and open Task Manager.
OK.
WHAT’S THE NAME OF THE APP I WOULD SEE IN TASK MANAGER??!???
Windows App.
I’M ASKING YOU, ‘WHAT’S THE NAME OF THE APP’???!??!??
I’m telling you, ‘Windows App.’
You did it so well, I started hearing it in their voices after a few lines. Well done.
What’s the original? Sounds as fun as ‘Front fell off’
Oh you’re in for a treat!
I would add… Slowly I Turned…
How Hi is a chinaman?
xkcd spotted <3
Good eye
This is funny and sad at the same time
Microsoft seems lost, they’re so interested in constantly changing everything to steal more of your information instead of just maintaining the massive lead they have.
They can’t seem to just make something work, always manipulating the systems, and such none of it is very good, but when you try to be the best at everything you end up mediocre. Good thing they got a market lock when they did.
We’re still feeling the damage done by the Microsoft monopoly from the '90s. Only historians will be able to say how far they sent us back.
Microsoft is a collection of fiefdoms, each led by a Lord (Product Manager) who drive projects which have two possible motivations: 1) promotion 2) bonus. Quality is not a factor and hasn’t been for decades. Cohesion? No. The lords sometimes fight amongst themselves. They serve the line go up. Everything is line go up. There is no bottom to the products. Line must go up
Yep, used to work for them, this is a very accurate and succinct analogy to use.
True pioneers of corporate neofeudalism.
Well said.
I finally had enough about a year ago and decided to bite the bullet and just install Linux. I honestly expected to run into all kinds of problems, particularly since I primarily use my desktop for gaming, but I’ve been very surprised how few problems I’ve actually had. It’s certainly not been completely problem free, but I wouldn’t say I’ve encountered more problems with Linux than I have in Windows. Different problems for sure, but not more, and honestly about equally difficult to fix.
What distro are you using? I really wanna take the leap and have the same worries
Linux mint for the first timers or UBUNTU is the safest
Linux Mint Cinnamon is very low friction to install and use for first timers from Windows
I feel like there’s more options to fix things in Linux. On windows it felt someone’s your just got a brick wall with an issue just because Windows want designed around the fix you envisioned.
They did this like a year or so back.
That’s strange given the announcement was made on 11 March 2025 and will be effective as of 27 May 2025.
They renamed it on other platforms (apple) in September 2024 https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-is-renaming-its-remote-desktop-app-on-certain-platforms-and-people-are-livid/
Yeah, I remember after an upgrade on my Mac last year I couldn’t find it after a reboot. Frustrating.
Ah yes, the “windows app” I remote into Linux on. That’s like an ex naming a kid after you levels of crazy.
Ahh windows. How I don’t miss you.
Had been windows 10 user since 2015 (no pc before that), installed linux mint a month ago and was surprised how smooth everything was!
Sorry windows but Im never coming back.
I knew I had remote desktop on my work laptop, because I had used it before, but the other day I was trying to open remote desktop and nothing came up, so I created an IT support ticket only for them to tell me it was now called Windows App…
I haven’t found Microsoft Documentation for anything since Word for Mac 5 on my Apple Centris 650 in 1992, and I only had that because it came in a printed book.
So this is on par with the Microsoft way: Let other people charge you for outdated help.
I really feel like Microsoft is on a quest to make windows as non user friendly as possible. Everything is hidden behind menus, the search function barely works, the taskbar can’t be moved, they’re constantly changing program names and can’t forget cramming a useless chat bot into the os again. It’s just a never ending stream of choices that make literally no sense from the perspective of the end user.
Was Wheatley a criticism of systemic issues of upper management all along
Oh, those sad, sad motherfuckers. My only concern is too many Linux Immigrants. Stay in your shitty corporate hell. It’s not like there’s any other option. /s
Is this year of the Linux Desktop?
I’m morbidly curious where the line is for a global shift. So far it’s invisible.
I doubt it will even happen though. Microsoft’s forcing AI on everything already and yet it hasn’t moved the needle. Microsoft has to do some wilder shit to even move people to Linux. Influencers and awareness don’t really help that much as shown by PewDiePie’s video about him moving to Linux.
I’ve been on the brink for a while but learning a whole new OS is going to be hard with a dissociative disorder. though I did just find out game compatibility is way better than I thought, so that’s one roadblock down.
im usually the most tech savvy of my friends and no one I know is already using it. That’s kind of the situation I assume most people are in. no one they know is using Linux and for whatever reason they don’t have the ability or time to learn it themselves.
People aren’t in the habit of thinking of computing as an inherently a political choice, but it is.
Computing is a tool, not a thing you merely consume or use for consumption. Yet the tech industry is very motivated to get us thinking of it that way, while positioning themselves as the middlemen. That’s probably the real reason they’re so excited about AI, it’s a way to turn computing into something you rent.
you’re probably right. isn’t that pretty much what they tried to do with cloud computing and storage?
No
I didn’t believe it until i verified it. This shit is true. Wtf! https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windows-itpro-blog/windows-app-to-replace-remote-desktop-app-for-windows/4390893
Am I reading that wrong or is it just saying the Windows Store version (which was terrible) is going away. It tells you to use the normal remote desktop function that has existed in Windows until they put that new stupidly named app in the Store.
So if you run RDP (can’t tell if that’s actually mstsc.exe now) it should function as normal.
People should just be able to create their RDP shortcuts as normal and go on with their day by simply ignoring the Microsoft store like most enterprise users have been trying to do all along.
Though I could be wrong, I don’t have a windows computer around me to try it on at the moment. I moved my machines at home to different flavors of Linux when I didn’t want to figure out comparability work around for 11
I actually just deployed this out at my company and Windows App (or the non Windows Store Remote Desktop App) is required to access AVD and W365 devices. Windows RDP is still present and works for accessing domain joined Windows devices, and both Windows App and Remote Desktop have that functionality as well.
I wonder if that has to do with them trying to integrate access for zero client type setups. If 20 people are remoted into a VM setup but they all are coming from the same rack, the IP/Hostname would be the same in theory, so if you try to RDP to it, the protocol doesn’t work properly, it would want to kick all the other users off their instances to let them sign in. Been a bit since I’ve had tonl manage virtual instances though, so maybe I’m forgetting something.
Can anyone recommend a Remote Desktop client for macOS, preferably something free and with tabs?
Windows App
Macintosh App
Apple App from the App Store Store
App-le
