Store links to desktop Microsoft Office show up in the Start Menu of Windows 10 Redstone 3

One of the main issues with going Windows Store only, such as in Windows 10 Cloud Edition, is the lack of powerful desktop apps such as Microsoft’s Office Suite. This is after all why Windows RT came bundled with an ARM-optimised set of Office apps.

Now the latest build of Windows 10 Redstone 3 Cloud Edition shows that Microsoft is once again taking that route, by including links to Microsoft’s Office Suite on the Start Menu of the latest install of Build 16170 of the Windows 10 Cloud SKU.

So Office desktop apps are coming real soon to Windows Store, they are now pinned in the Start Menu on Redstone 3. pic.twitter.com/PQluSGURfg

— mehedi (@mehedih_) April 7, 2017

Of course this time it will not just be a special exception, with the Office apps being delivered directly from the store courtesy of Project Centennial (which we first reported in February 2017), and nearly every developer also being open to take advantage of the feature and bring their apps to the locked down version of Windows 10.

Currently, the links do not work, but this should be an issue which resolves over the next few months running up to the Fall release of Redstone 3.

Of course, in some ways, it is an admission that UWP apps are just not sufficient or powerful enough to meet even average needs or desires of consumers, which is not the best news for Microsoft’s mobile platforms, but given the ever more pragmatic Microsoft that is a conversation for another day.