Windows 8 leaks reveal alleged app-store details

The latest batch of rumors regarding a Windows app store has cropped up.

They include a different name than previously rumored, a logo, and the ability to deliver software directly to a person's desktop, according to Windows enthusiast site WinRumors and other sources.

WinRumors reports that the new shop is likely to be dubbed the Windows Store--not the Windows App Store. It apparently will offer consumers a variety of free and paid apps for PCs that they can download much in the same way that Apple users can download apps from the Mac App Store. Its release is tied to that of Windows 8, the next version of the Windows operating system.

The store will also allegedly kick off with a new logo that, like much of Windows 8, borrows some of its look and feel from Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Metro UI.

The new store will most likely be based on HTML5 and will send apps to PCs from Microsoft's cloud-based Azure service, according to Windows enthusiast site MSWin (Google Translate version), which apparently peeked under the hood of the recent Windows 8 Milestone 3 Build. The site also found subtle entries pointing to a Windows Store deep within the bowels of the Windows Registry.

Tech enthusiast site Geek.com reports that pointers to the store were uncovered by some Russian users who were checking out system folders in the Milestone 3 Build. According to them, the store will be comprised of a runtime module, a service, and a licensing client.

Reports of a Windows app store have long been floating about, suggesting that such a shop could allow Microsoft to mimic the success that Apple has achieved with its own app stores.

Unfortunately, screenshots released a few weeks ago purporting to be of the upcoming Windows store have since been revealed to be fake, according to Windows enthusiast site Windows 8 Center and other sources. Instead of being legit images from an actual Windows 8 build, the shots were instead the handiwork of third-party software from Chinese developers.

So as always, rumors and screenshots that appear to be coming from Windows 8 builds should be taken with grains of salt until the actual product is revealed. Though no release dates have yet been revealed for Windows 8, reports from tech news site Boy Genius Report and other sources say that Microsoft is set to unveil an early copy of the new OS at its annual Professional Developers Conference in September.