Understanding Windows Store Categories

As noted earlier, Windows Store uses a category‑based design in which the various app categories are represented visually by groups that are laid out from left to right, much as Start screen groups can be. The following major groups are available:

• Spotlight: The first group provides a front‑of‑store experience, with the latest and most highly reviewed apps, showcased apps, and other notable apps.

• Games: Expected to be the most popular app category as it is on Windows Phone and other mobile platforms, this group gets preferential placement and additional promotional space.

• Social: This group contains apps related to social network services, such as Facebook and Twitter as well as blog‑related apps, such as WordPress.

• Entertainment: This group covers entertainment related apps that often cross over into music and video, including Flixster, Netflix, Xbox Companion, and the like.

• Photo: Here, you’ll find apps that extend the basic photo experiences in Windows 8 with support for editing capabilities and various online photo services.

• Music & Video: As with photos, Windows 8 provides only a basic multimedia experience, so this category will open up the platform’s support for music, video, online radio, podcast, and other related services.

• Sports: Need an app to check up on the latest sports scores and gossip? It’ll be in here.

• Books & Reference: Filled with apps for e‑book reading platforms like Kindle and Nook, as well as more traditional reference material, this is the category to check out if you’re looking to turn that Windows 8 tablet into an electronic bookshelf.

• News & Weather: If you wish to stay up to date with the news or weather, you’ll find a plethora of apps here for newspapers like The New York Times and Los Angeles Times , TV, and online‑based news shops, such as News360 and MSNBC, weather utilities, and the like.

• Health & Fitness: Need to track how many calories you’ve burned preparing for that dinner you made using an app from the next app category? You’ll find an app for that in this category.

• Food & Dining: This category highlights cookbooks, restaurant review apps, and related apps.

• Lifestyle: A collection of apps related to lifestyle activities that are not covered by the other categories.

• Shopping: Here, you’ll find apps for Amazon.com and your other favorite retailers as well as apps related to the shopping experience, including reviews‑based apps.

• Travel: Travel apps, including currency converters, guides to international locales, and hotel, airfare, and auto rentals can be found in this category.

• Finance: Apps related to personal finance, taxes, and the stock market are available here.

• Productivity: Perhaps the broadest category aside from games, this category includes apps related to productivity, including note‑taking solutions like OneNote and Evernote, word processors and other document editors, cloud storage, and much, much more.

• Tools: A collection of useful utilities which, like Security below, also includes a larger‑than‑usual selection of desktop applications in addition to Metro‑style apps.

• Security: The most curious category because it will likely consist mostly of links to traditional desktop applications over time rather than Metro‑style apps, this category houses PC security and personal protection apps.

• Business: This category includes the expected business‑oriented titles, but also cloud‑based storage services.

• Education: Here you’ll find educational app titles of all types, from SAT preparation to star charts.

Within each group in the home screen, you will see a few promoted apps, tiled for top free and paid apps in that category, and other entries.