Windows 11's Microsoft Store just got a lot better with performance boosts across the board

Windows 11 has a new preview build, and while there aren't any noteworthy changes - it's mostly about bug fixes and minor tweaking - there's a hidden change to the Microsoft Store which is very worthwhile.

This is preview build 26100 for the Canary and Dev channels, and testers in these channels are getting those changes plus a new Microsoft Store rolling out, as highlighted by Sergio Pedri, a Senior Software Engineer at the company, on X (formerly Twitter).

The store has 'major performance improvements' and as you can see in the video clip in the tweet, it loads up pretty sharpish - with the ability to skip the splash screen, to boot.

That's a very welcome speed up, no doubt, for those who use the Microsoft Store, albeit that may be far from all Windows 11 users (to put it diplomatically). Still, improvements are improvements, and there's been further movement elsewhere as Neowin flagged up.

We're told by Rudy Huyn, Principal Architect at Microsoft working on the store (and Copilot plus Windows) that product pages are now loading up to 40% faster, so that's a considerable performance boost, too.

Alongside other tweaks like the 'Buy' button for a product popping into place much more swiftly when you go to a product page. This is down to changes in how the Microsoft Store app deals with licensing and entitlement, we're told.

Microsoft is definitely on a push to make the store a snappier and more streamlined experience, which is obviously a good thing - but how much traffic that'll persuade to come into the fold, well, we're not convinced it'll be the missing piece of the jigsaw.

• Read more: Windows 11's Copilot AI might take over your desktop in the future
• Read more: Microsoft urged to extend Windows 10's lifespan or face 'biggest jump in junked computers ever'