Windows App might be Microsoft's most impossible rebranding yet

The Windows App, released last year after being previewed as the continuation of the Remote Desktop Client platform, might be the worst rebranding ever, agree IT admins pretty much everywhere.

The reason? It’s impossible to research, and doing so doesn’t display any relevant results.

The topic is heavily discussed on Reddit, where the original post has more than 1000 interactions, and has become this week’s most popular subject. IT managers everywhere are not really happy with Microsoft’s decision to rebrand Remote Desktop Client to Windows App.

During testing for an AVD environment that includes details regarding the change from Remote Desktop Client to Windows App, what I feared was going to be a nightmare is true: trying to research anything that includes the text “Windows App” makes it nearly impossible to find any relevant results, AI or otherwise.

The Windows App does pretty much what the Remote Desktop Client did in the past: allow users to access cloud PCs anywhere, as long as they have an Internet connection. As we mentioned earlier, it was released in 2024, and it had been speculated ever since the Remote Desktop Client stopped receiving updates.

Why the rebrand? Well, for one reason, Microsoft sought to bring it closer to the Azure Environment while clearly stating that it’s about accessing Windows through the cloud. The Windows App is also accessible to macOS and iOS users.

However, being so close to home and Windows being such a vague and popular keyword, looking for anything related to it, especially solutions to issues, might prove difficult.

It could be a nightmare, especially for IT admins, and the comments, although many of them funny, are a reality.

Granted. “Windows Apps” is now renamed to “Windows Azure”

Uhh I think you mean Windows Azure Entra ID 365 Copilot

Microsoft is not exactly the best company at naming its products. For example, Office was rebranded to Office 365, then Microsoft 365, and then finally Microsoft Copilot 365, and this is not even the final form. Same happened with Microsoft Azure AD when it became Entra ID.

Too many changes mean users, and especially admins and managers, can’t really keep up. This holds for the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, as well: IT admins are feeling overwhelmed by the addition of new capabilities, areas, and features.

What do you think about this?