pwas

About this tag
On WindowsForum.com, discussions tagged with pwas cover the evolving role of Progressive Web Apps in Microsoft's ecosystem. Recent threads highlight how browsers like Firefox 143 now support taskbar-pinned web apps (PWA-style), enabling sites to run in simplified windows alongside native apps. Meanwhile, Microsoft Edge is retiring its sidebar app list—which allowed users to pin websites and mini-apps—in favor of a Copilot-first experience, signaling a shift in how PWAs are integrated into the browser. The Microsoft Store's renaissance also touches on PWAs, as it now supports multiple app models including PWA, Win32, and UWP, with unified updates. These developments reflect a broader trend where PWAs are becoming more prominent in Windows workflows, though their future depends on how Microsoft balances AI features with traditional app launchers.
  1. Edge Canary Retires Sidebar App List in Favor of Copilot

    Microsoft Edge is quietly retiring the long-favored Sidebar app list in Canary builds and steering that small real‑estate toward a Copilot‑first experience — an experiment that, if it reaches Stable, will reshape how many Windows users multitask in the browser. Early testers report an in‑product...
  2. Edge Canary Retires Sidebar App List in Favor of Copilot

    Microsoft’s latest test in Edge Canary quietly signals a shift in the browser’s sidebar strategy: the “Sidebar app list” — the small, convenient launcher that let users pin websites and mini‑apps like Instagram, Spotify and Facebook — is being retired in favor of a Copilot‑centred experience...
  3. Will the Copilot Key Survive? AI, Hardware Shortcuts, and Windows UX

    When Microsoft began shipping keyboards labeled “Copilot+” with a dedicated Copilot key, the gesture felt like a signal: AI was now a hardware-first priority for Windows. What started as a promotional flourish, however, has quickly exposed the long-running tension between hardware gimmicks and...
  4. Firefox 143: Copilot in AI Sidebar and Windows Web Apps (Pinned Sites)

    Firefox’s latest stable update, Firefox 143, pushes two headline features into the hands of users: an AI chat provider shortcut that surfaces Microsoft Copilot inside the browser’s AI sidebar, and a Windows-only web‑app (pinned‑site) workflow that lets you add sites to the taskbar and run them...
  5. Windows 11 Widgets vs macOS Sports Widget: The Gap in Widget Ecosystems

    Apple's latest widget move — an expanded sports widget on macOS that brings iPhone and iPad widgets to the desktop — has reignited a familiar frustration: Windows 11's Widgets Board still feels unfinished, underpopulated, and deprioritized compared with the widget momentum Apple and other...
  6. Firefox 143: Windows taskbar PWA pins, Copilot sidebar, privacy & UX boosts

    Mozilla’s Firefox 143 lands as a pragmatic, Windows‑focused update that finally closes several long‑standing feature gaps while introducing new privacy, accessibility, and media improvements — notably taskbar‑pinned web apps (PWA‑style), Microsoft Copilot in the AI sidebar, camera preview in...
  7. Microsoft Store: From Fragmented to Centralized, Win32, and Unified Updates

    Microsoft’s attempt to build a safe, centralized app ecosystem for Windows began as an inspired idea and then spent more than a decade bouncing between half-measures, bad product bets, and shifting incentives — but over the last two years Microsoft has quietly rebuilt the plumbing and the...
  8. Microsoft Store Renaissance: Unified Updates and Open App Models

    Microsoft’s app-store experiment started with a clear promise — a single, safe place to find and automatically update Windows software — but for more than a decade the reality was a sequence of missteps, confusing platform shifts, and fragmented developer incentives that left most PC users...
  9. Firefox 143 Brings Windows Taskbar Web Apps and Copilot Sidebar Enhancements

    Firefox’s latest release delivers the kind of practical Windows-focused refinements power users have been asking for — and a high-profile AI tie‑in that will keep privacy wonks and enterprise admins debating for weeks. Background / Overview Mozilla’s rapid-release cadence means the browser you...
  10. Microsoft Store Waives Individual Developer Fee to Boost Indie Windows Apps

    Microsoft's decision to remove the registration fee for individual developers publishing to the Microsoft Store is more than a pricing change — it's a clear signal that the company intends to make the Store a lower-friction, broader distribution channel for independent Windows software creators...
  11. Microsoft Deprecates Legacy Edge Components — Migrate to WebView2 & Chromium PWAs

    Microsoft has quietly moved a cluster of legacy Edge components onto Windows’ official deprecated-features list, formally flagging Legacy Web View, Hosted / Windows Web Applications (Windows 8/8.1 / early UWP HTML/JavaScript apps), legacy Progressive Web Apps (PWA) and the EdgeHTML (Legacy Edge)...
  12. Microsoft Deprecates EdgeHTML Web Components, Accelerates WebView2 and Chromium PWAs

    Microsoft has quietly placed a cluster of legacy web components — the EdgeHTML-era pieces that once connected Windows and the web — onto Windows’ official deprecation list, signaling a formal step toward their eventual removal and accelerating the platform’s shift to Chromium-based embedding and...
  13. Windows EdgeHTML Deprecation: Migrate to WebView2 and Chromium PWAs

    Microsoft’s quiet entry on the Windows deprecation list this summer signals a decisive end to another generation of web integration in the OS: Legacy Web View, EdgeHTML-based web apps, legacy PWAs, and the EdgeHTML DevTools are now officially deprecated, and developers are being pushed toward...
  14. EdgeHTML Deprecation: Migrating to WebView2, Chromium PWAs, and WinUI

    Microsoft has quietly moved a set of EdgeHTML-era web components onto Windows’ official deprecation list, marking the next step in a long shift away from platform-specific web integration toward Chromium-based runtimes and standards-based Progressive Web Apps. This change — which names Legacy...
  15. October 2025 Outlook Lite Block: Migration to Outlook for Mobile

    Microsoft is reportedly planning to block fresh installations of Outlook Lite starting in October 2025 as it prepares a broader retirement of the app, forcing users who rely on a lightweight, battery-friendly client to either remain on an aging build or move to the full Outlook for Mobile...
  16. Chrome Safety Check auto-revokes idle clipboard permissions in Canary

    Google’s Chrome is quietly treating copy-and-paste as a first‑class privacy risk: Canary builds now show Safety Check automatically removing clipboard permissions from sites you haven’t visited recently, surface a clear “Removed permissions for [x] sites” notice in the menu, and give users a...
  17. Netflix Windows Offline Downloads: Rollout, Limits, and Why It Eroded

    Netflix finally brought its long-promised offline-download feature to Windows 10 — but the story since that launch is a textbook case in how platform choices, licensing agreements, and product redesigns can change what users actually get on their laptops and tablets. (techcrunch.com...
  18. Windows 11 Game Day: Smooth Live Sports Streaming with Local Weather

    A local sports photo dispatch and weather note out of Bluefield, West Virginia, puts two everyday realities on the same page: a snapshot from a Jaguars–Saints football matchup, and a forecast that calls for a mostly calm morning turning into a wet afternoon, with a milder, showery night to...
  19. Edge/WebView2 Updates on Windows 10 Through Oct 2028: Migration Breathing Room

    Microsoft's decision to keep Microsoft Edge and the WebView2 runtime receiving updates on Windows 10 through at least October 2028 changes the migration calculus for millions of users — but it is a tactical reprieve, not a permanent fix for an aging operating system. Background Microsoft long...
  20. Edge and WebView2 Updates on Windows 10 Through 2028 Amid Windows 10 EOL 2025

    Microsoft’s recent clarification that Microsoft Edge — and the Microsoft WebView2 runtime that powers many modern Windows apps — will continue to receive security and quality updates on Windows 10 (version 22H2) through at least October 2028 is a meaningful shift in the post‑end‑of‑life...