Microsoft’s Windows 10 ebook store is now live for some users

Microsoft’s new ebook store is now available as part of Windows 10’s Store app on both Windows 10 PCs and tablets as well as Windows 10 Mobile devices for Windows Insiders in the U.S.A. with build 15014.

The new ebook section of the Store app, labelled ‘Books’, is fully functional for those that can see it and users are being encouraged by Microsoft to purchase some titles and give them feedback on both the shopping and reading experience.

Interestingly, Microsoft doesn’t seem to have plans to release a dedicated ebooks app for Windows 10 and is instead adding the functionality to its Microsoft Edge web browser. This appears to be a similar strategy to how the company has encouraged Windows 10 users to use Edge for viewing PDF files instead of a separate PDF viewer app.

With this update for Windows Insiders, Microsoft Edge has gained a new hub entry, next to the favorites icon in the upper-right corner of the app, which will act as a user’s personal ebook library. The Edge ebook experience also supports Cortana integration for looking up words, font size and spacing customization, theme and navigation control options, and EPUB file support.

Windows Insiders are a select group of Windows 10 users who test early versions of Windows updates and features before they’re rolled out to the general public. The Windows 10 ebook store will likely become available for everyone when the Creators Update launches sometime during the next few months.

Are you excited for ebooks in Windows 10? Is using Edge as the ebook reader a good decision? Let us know in the comments below.