Friday Shipped & Scarred · #14

Microsoft Store Said No — Over a Blurry Icon and the Wrong Link

A year ago, “Microsoft Store” was the last line of a roadmap I wrote but didn't believe I'd reach. This week I submitted PC Workman to it. Microsoft said no.

By Marcin Firmuga·2026-06-26·5 min read·Friday Shipped & Scarred #14

Not because of the code. Because of a blurry icon and a Security Policy link to the wrong file.

Monday's plan was the gaming overlay and your community intents. Those shipped. But the real story of this week happened somewhere I circled for 12 months and never dared to open: Microsoft Partner Center.

Shipped

Scarred: certification failed. Twice. First attempt, I forgot to give them a logo at all (yes, really). Second attempt, two things stopped me. “Please provide a clear tile icon, not distorted, blurry, or low resolution.” A year of voltage-anomaly math and offline AI — my blocker was a fuzzy PNG. And “The privacy policy link doesn't display a privacy policy.” I'd pointed them at my SECURITY.md. That's a security policy, not a privacy policy. The reviewer opened the link and correctly said: this isn't what we asked for.

A rejection that says “fix these two things and resubmit” isn't a no. It's the Store telling me I'm this close. A year ago that line was a fantasy. This week it's a checklist.

What's next

Welding plastics by day. Building for the Store by night. The same rhythm that built every line of this.

BuildInPublicMicrosoftStorePythonOpenSource
This is the project behind the post. PC Workman is a free, open-source Windows system monitor with an offline AI assistant - everything described here is real, shipped code. Download it or read the source.
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MF

Marcin Firmuga

Solo developer · HCK_Labs · building PC Workman in public

Every edition is written from that week's real commits. Newest posts premiere on LinkedIn - the archive lives here. More about me: my story.