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by johnklos 639 days ago
Microsoft has an app called, "Windows App". Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising from a company that named their OS after a single featur, but this name is so much worse. What does it do? The name doesn't say at all.

Did it really occur to nobody at Microsoft that "now open the Windows App app" is going to confuse a lot of people?

Even after reading the whole article, all I can infer is that this is a "seamless" replacement for Microsoft's "Remote Desktop". I'm assuming it's 100% Microsoft cloud based, although I'd be curious if it can be used without the Internet.

4 comments

On non-Windows platforms its a partial UI rework on the existing Remote Desktop Client, but I think on Windows its separate to the existing Remote Desktop Client/App(s) and its specifically for accessing cloud-hosted Windows PCs (Windows365, DevBox, Azure VDI etc)
More specifically, I get the impression it’s part of a strategy to recenter the Windows desktop experience from “the PC on your desk” to “an aggregated view of your workplace-focused cloud services”.
Microsoft seems to be terrible at naming things, but their strategy is to confuse people when their products get labeled as garbage and have a stigma attached so they can just change the name again.
I'm more surprised they didn't call it Microsoft One.
That's probably earmarked for the next re-branding of Microsoft Azure AD Active Entra
I'm sure they're saving that one for the version of Windows that is actually just Teams + Cortana
youre telling me https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14160809

terrible is the understatement of the century. naming, renaming. different products with the same name. the same products with different names in different contexts. ugh.

Don’t worry. They will soon rename and release different variations: ‘Windows App Home’, Windows App Plus’, Windows App for 365’, ‘Windows App Server’, ‘Windows App Plus for Enterprise’, ‘Windows App Entra’, ‘Windows App CoPilot’, ‘Windows App Copilot Plus for 365”, and ‘Windows App CoPilot Plus for Enterprise 365 Entra Admin’. Monthly tiered pricing plans are currently being finalized.
It reminded me of everything and anything AI related being called Copilot.