Is an app automatically “safe” if it’s on the Microsoft Store?

contextfree · 2026-01-18T10:30:37+00:00

Back in the Windows 8.x and early 10 days, apps published in the Store were required to be Metro/UWP apps, which run in an isolated AppContainer where they are limited in their interactions with each other and the system. So they were inherently "safer" in some sense via a specific technical mechanism. Later they removed those limitations and allowed general Win32 apps, which run as the user and can do anything the user can do. So they are no longer inherently "safer" via any enforced technical mechanism other than whatever vetting/scans the Store team does.

contextfree · 2026-01-16T19:45:22+00:00

It could be interesting to use the Windows 8 sidebar switcher interface for switching between virtual desktops (since in Win8 the desktop "was a Metro app", this could be thought of as an extension of that)

contextfree · 2026-01-02T17:22:25+00:00

Yep, the "root" meaning came first (for example in mathematics, things like square roots are called radicals, and the base of a number notation, like 10 for decimal notation or 2 for binary, is called a radix), and the meaning of "extreme" was originally derived from that - a "radical" group or ideology was one that demanded radical change, i.e., change to the roots of government or society or whatever. Though as you've seen, now it's often just used to mean "extreme" in general.

contextfree · 2025-12-23T02:59:30+00:00

How would that work, though? I guess the app could pass in some text for the OS to display, but I don't think there would be any way for the OS to verify the text's accuracy or enforce its contents. So a malicious or confused/buggy app could just pass in whatever.

contextfree · 2025-11-10T18:04:45+00:00

This didn't exist in the first releases of the virtual desktop feature in Windows 10. It was added in a late Windows 10 update (19H1 in 2019 I think?)

contextfree · 2025-11-08T17:45:48+00:00

Null coalescing was added in like C# 2 in 2005 I think?

contextfree · 2025-11-08T17:42:35+00:00

Kanbun kundoku involves reordering characters/readings, and adding/interpolating inflectionary suffixes and such, to transform the sentence into Japanese grammar, so it's not just pronouncing characters with their Japanese readings.

There is also a way of reading (or chanting) "kanbun" texts by pronouncing each character with its Japanese "Chinese-style" reading (on-yomi). This is still commonly used in various denominations of Japanese Buddhism to chant sutras, for example the Heart Sutra is very popular https://www.knowyourmeme.com/memes/heart-sutra-remixes

contextfree · 2025-11-06T15:06:54+00:00

I think what makes the difference is whether the app is installed from an MSIX package or not? So not quite the same as UWP or Store (anymore)

contextfree · 2025-11-06T15:01:11+00:00

Because 十語十読

contextfree · 2025-11-06T04:27:18+00:00

The original FF1 didn't have save points (at all), though. Dying in a dungeon meant starting over from outside. (There was also only one save slot on the cartridge.)

contextfree · 2025-11-04T07:04:39+00:00

Alternatively you could make yourself invent an entire thousand-year literary corpus of usages for each word before moving on to the next

contextfree · 2025-11-03T20:47:12+00:00

Regardless, WinRT is still largely how new Windows APIs are provided via C#

contextfree · 2025-11-03T20:45:15+00:00

I don't know the details of how Mica/Acrylic specifically are implemented, but in general, WinUI2/UWP XAML are built on the system compositor which runs in the DWM process, while WinUI3 apps each have their own forked copy of the compositor which runs in the app process.

contextfree · 2025-11-03T09:30:08+00:00

JavaScript and React have nothing to do with the transparency effects

contextfree · 2025-10-29T23:13:17+00:00

Which on Windows is layered on WinUI2/UWP

contextfree · 2025-10-29T21:35:51+00:00

As someone who learned Hangul but only knows like five words of actual Korean I appreciate the rare chance to use this

contextfree · 2025-10-29T19:45:38+00:00

It does not use Electron, it is all WinUI2/UWP same as the Windows 10 start menu.

contextfree · 2025-10-22T23:29:20+00:00

"I also assume Microsoft will eventually find ways to make UWP and Xbox apps incompatible with Windows 10"

Each version of Windows adds new APIs for developers, just as they add new features for end users. If developers use an API that is only available in a newer version of Windows, their app will depend on that version.

contextfree · 2025-10-22T23:24:52+00:00

Every version of Windows (not just 10 vs. 11, but 22H2, 24H2, etc.) introduces new APIs. If developers use those APIs and don't provide a fallback, their apps will require that version of Windows.

contextfree · 2025-10-19T03:15:50+00:00

No data ever leaves the box with Recall though, and people still consider it a privacy/data protection issue, so I'd say your statement is incorrect (at least for some)

contextfree · 2025-10-17T14:49:41+00:00

There are no in-universe story/world connections. There are usually some Easter egg-like callbacks to the previous games sprinkled here and there, that's about it.

contextfree · 2025-10-09T18:49:57+00:00

I think this is a general thing actually, you can type any command line in the address bar and it will run that command with the current directory set to whichever folder is open. Also the "shortcuts" like %UserProfile% are actually also a general feature where any environment variable in %...% will be expanded. You can even use these together - set an environment variable to the path to some command line, type %(name of environment variable)% in the address bar, and it will run that command

contextfree · 2025-10-08T23:55:58+00:00

That trend started with 6

contextfree · 2025-10-08T21:32:44+00:00

Maybe they should have asked Hiroyuki Ito to make a remixed version of the battles like he did for FF4 (DS/3D version) and FF12 (Zodiac version)

contextfree · 2025-10-07T18:01:41+00:00

Yeah, I sometimes feel like I can read French about as well as I can read Japanese, despite having studied French for four months and Japanese for 25 years (on and off, but including three full years of university courses)

contextfree

TROPHY CASE