How do I update Power BI Desktop?

Power BI team updates the Power BI Desktop tool every month, and keeping that manually up-to-date is a big hassle. So if you want to be always on the edge of updates and enjoy the fascinating new features announced every month, considering getting the Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft Store.

Flexibility on Install: Download Link

One of the problems of the Microsoft Store version of Power BI Desktop is that it is not available for all versions of Windows. For some versions, you can only use the download link. Another scenario is that for some reason, someone might want to use an older version of Power BI Desktop for their report development work. Using the Microsoft Store app wouldn’t allow it usually, because it automatically updates. so you will have more flexibility on what you want to have installed and where you want this to be installed using the download link.

Development Work: Both the Same

In terms of building the report, there is no difference between the two versions (if we consider that both versions are up-to-date). You can build exactly the same report using any of these two methods. There will be no difference in the Power BI file (*.PBIX file) that is created using any of these methods. You can open a file created with any of these, using the other one (as long as they are both up-to-date).

Power BI Desktop Report Server is Different

There is another tool with almost the same name as Power BI Desktop but called as Power BI Desktop Report Server. This is the report development tool that only supports reports to be published into Power BI Report Server (which is an on-premises solution for Power BI). This tool is only available through a download link, and there is not Microsoft Store app version for that yet. This tool gets updated every four months, and some of the features of Power BI Desktop is not available for it.