The Microsoft Store site has a new look made with web components tools

On Thursday, Microsoft released a new Microsoft Store Windows 11 app update for Canary and Dev channel Insider users. As it turns out, that wasn't the only thing that was updated for Microsoft Store users. The store's official desktop website got a new design that makes it look much like the Windows 11 app.

The Microsoft Store site now employs a design where you can browse through cards to see new apps, categories, special offers, and more. If you click on the Games or Movies & TV tab on top, you will see that card design is also available below the main ones, with New and Notable Games and Best Selling Games getting their own cards, and New Movies and Features Movies getting the same look.

Hey! Today we released the new https://t.co/g2dIFhnDWG - app store for Windows. 🎉 Proud of this work!

It's built with web components, using @buildWithLit, @shoelace_style, @vite_js, @pwabuilder's PWA template, App Tools router, running on C# ASPNET backend. 😎
— Judah Gabriel (@JudahGabriel) October 5, 2023

Judah Gabriel, an engineer at Microsoft, posted on X (formerly Twitter), announcing the rollout of the new Microsoft Store site. He mentioned that it was made with a number of different web component tools, including ones from Lit, Shoelace, Vite, and PWABuilder's template for making progressive web apps, among others.

In a follow-up post, Gabriel stated that the old version of the Microsoft Store site used a "React codebase built on an obsoleted UI framework." The new site has a "thoughtfully designed interface, easier ways to discover new apps, and modern web tech stack."

When someone on X worried that this store website might release the Windows 11 dedicated app, Gabriel posted a response stating:

Think of this as the web front to the app store on Windows. They work together. I work on the same team as the Store desktop app team - they're great folks building the best in-box app on Windows. I wish more Windows in-box apps were as well-crafted as Store.

The desktop Microsoft Store app has received a few recent updates, including an Instant Games feature where you can play casual games in the app with no downloads needed.