Here are the Microsoft Store App Awards 2023 winners

During its annual Build developer conference, Microsoft unveiled the winners of its now-regular Microsoft Store App Awards contest. The event celebrates the best Windows 10 and 11 applications that "inspire others to build beautiful and useful apps" and provide excellent user experience, regular updates, and more.

In March 2023, Microsoft opened nominations, allowing users and developers to submit their favorite projects for participation. The community voting kicked in on May 1, 2023, and the results are now ready. Behold the winners of the Microsoft Store App Awards 2023.

Microsoft Store App Awards 2023 Winners - Community Choice

The community has voted the following apps as the best in their categories:

Utilities and Tools: Torrex

These apps are designed to make your life easier by performing a variety of tasks that you may need on a daily basis. This can include managing your PC, simplifying tasks of a workflow, and much more. Which one of these tools do you find the most helpful?

Torrex is a Universal Windows App for downloading files using the BitTorrent distribution system. Light, customizable, and adaptable, Torrex brings torrent downloads to all your devices, including PC, tablets, Xbox, and even HoloLens.

Productivity: Mozilla Firefox

These apps are designed to help you stay focused and get things done. They can include to-do lists, note-taking apps, time-management tools, and much more. Which one of these apps do you rely on the most to help you stay productive?

Firefox needs no introduction. This privacy-focused browser is the go-to solution for those who need to reclaim their data and take a break from the flood of Chromium-based mainstream browsers.

Audio/Video: VLC

These apps are designed to help you manage your audio and video content, whether you're creating it yourself or simply organizing media files that you've downloaded or purchased. This can include media players, libraries, file converters, and much more. Which one of these apps do you find the most helpful for managing your audio and video files?

The VLC media player (previously known as VideoLAN Client) is a free and open-source media software for local and streaming playback.

Creativity: Sketchable

These apps are designed to help you unleash your creativity and bring your ideas to life. They can include graphic design tools, modeling software, animation programs, and much more. Which one of these apps do you find the most helpful in expressing your creative ideas?

Sketchable Plus is a powerful app designed for digital artists. It features a carefully crafted and clean user interface, support for up to 32 layers, masks, customizable brushes, stencils, GPU accelerations, support for PSD documents, ARM64 compatibility, and more.

Personalization: Lively Wallpaper

These apps are designed to help you personalize and customize your PC to better suit your needs. This can include changing the appearance and behavior of the UI, enabling more features, creating custom hotkeys and shortcuts, and much more. Which app do you use the most to make your PC feel truly yours?

Lively Wallpaper brings animated wallpapers to your Windows desktop. The app can use GIFs, videos, and even wallpapers as your desktop background or screensaver. Lively Wallpaper is free and open-source.

Microsoft Store App Awards 2023 Winners - Editors' Choice

This year, in addition to the community voting picks, Microsoft highlighted excellent Windows apps recognized by its editors. Here are the winners:

• Creativity: Descript
• Entertainment: Amazon Prime Video
• Productivity: Concepts
• Best Integration with Windows: WhatsApp
• Special Recognition: Ava Accessibility

You find more information about the Microsoft Store App Awards event in the official Windows blog. Also, check out the last year's winners here. Need more great Windows apps? Check out our recent articles covering the top 11 apps for every Windows user and 10 great programs to fix Windows 11's shortcomings.

Be sure to catch up with the rest of Build 2023 announcements here.