Windows Store for Business adds offline licensing

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by Radu Tyrsina 

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Back in November 2015, Microsoft launched the Windows Store for Business along the release of Windows 10 version 1511 to give IT administrators some tools to manage and distribute Windows apps. The portal is pretty good incentive to get more business customers and developers embrace the new operating system and Microsoft also allowed developers to sell organizational licenses to companies straight through the store earlier this year.

Today, the company continues its iterative approach by announcing that the Windows Store for Business now supports offline licensing. For developers, two licensing and distribution solutions are available:

  • Store-managed (online) is your default option, in which the Store service installs your app and issues entitlements for every user in the organization who installs the app.
  • Organization-managed (offline) is an optional additional choice, in which the organization can download your app binary with proper entitlements, distribute the apps using their own management tools and keep track of the number of licenses used.

In the blog post, the Windows Apps team notes that several apps are already enabled for organization-managed licensing and distribution in the Windows Store for Business including the Office apps, Outlook Mail and Calendar, OneDrive, Teamviewer, JT2GO from Siemens and more. Developers looking to enable offline offline licensing for their apps will have to log in to the Windows Dev Center dashboard and follow these steps:

  1. Open the app you would like to enable for offline licensing and create a new submission.
  2.  In Pricing and availability, go to the Organizational licensing.
  3. Make sure the box for Make my app available to organizations withStore-managed (online) volume licensing is checked.
  4.  Also check the box for Allow organization-managed (offline) licensing and distribution for organizations.
  5. Make any other desired changes to your submission, then submit the app to the Store.
Developers can enable offline licensing in the Windows dev Center.
Developers can enable offline licensing in the Windows dev Center.

Developers can enable organization-managed licensing and distribution for both free and paid apps. For users, apps distributed with offline licensing will work and update like regular apps though IT administrators may choose to manage app updates. More information on organizational licensing is available on this support page if you need it.

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina Shield

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time). For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web. Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they're looking for.