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Microsoft Purges 1,500 Fake Apps From the Windows Store

The cesspool that is the Windows Store available in Windows 8 is finally getting a clean up. Microsoft is getting rid of 1,500 fake apps from the Store and will refund your money if you fell for a scam.

In a blog post titled "How we're addressing misleading apps in Windows Store", Microsoft's Todd Brix writes that the company is modifying the Windows Store app certification requirements to put an end to fake apps masquerading as the real deal and trying to bait innocent customers. The changes include:

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  • Naming – to clearly and accurately reflect the functionality of the app.
  • Categories – to ensure apps are categorized according to the app function and purpose.
  • Icons – must be differentiated to avoid being mistaken with others.

The issue was first pointed out by How-To Geek, which discovered that it was in fact totally not hard to run into obviously fake copies of legit apps, as you can see in the image below, for instance.

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"Within half an hour we managed to find fake paid versions of Adobe Flash Player, Firefox, Pandora, IMDB, Candy Crush Saga, Wechat, WhatsApp, uTorrent, Picasa, Bluestacks, Minecraft, Spotify, Google Hangouts, Picasa, Clash of Clans, Blender 3D, and a lot more", writes How-To Geek.

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Microsoft's new measures should hopefully keep the Store scam-free. Now we just need the same thing to happen for the Windows Phone Store. [Microsoft, How-To Geek]

Screenshot courtesy: How-To Geek