Stupid Question 42: How do I access all the apps in Windows Store? And how can I tell how many there are?

[To celebrate my first year of programming I will ask a ‘stupid’ questions daily on my blog for a year, to make sure I learn at least 365 new things during my second year as a developer]

I get asked a lot how many apps there are in Windows Store, and I’ve been answering that it was about 500 at the end of the summer,- but I had no idea how many right now. Today I felt like having a look, and I realized that maybe not so many know how they can get the total count if they keep asking me? SO here is the answer:

1.To get the total open Windows Store, and get out the charms. Use the search charm and enter * (this is a wildcard and will display all). Voilá.

Not looking good for Sweden!

Mine was quite depressing (fresh install of Windows 8) as you can see, nothing close to the 1080 mentioned a week ago or so in a random blog post I read. The apps you can see are based on your language and region settings, so to access more apps you’ll have to add more languages (Swedish is not that widely used, therefore the few apps). Look what happens when I add US English

Adding English, as I do speak English

Look at that! It does help to speak several languages! I can get more apps!Woho!

And if I change my region to United States

Changing region

Much better!

So yes, that’s how you do it! Let’s hope we see my app in the store soon, I just finished my WinRT app I’ve been working on this summer, just need a design approval before I send it in. I’m attending a Windows 8 event tomorrow so I’ll see what the feedback is. To be continued!

Stupid Question 42: How do I access all the apps in Windows Store? And how can I tell how many there are?

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