You also get the option to automatically increment the app version number. If you are using Visual Studio to package your apps, when creating an app package for sideloading, you will be asked whether you want to enable automatic updates.

appinstaller file and a new package, with a higher version number, in the same remote location using the original website URL or file share UNC.įor more information on MSIX, Microsoft’s latest installer technology, see Improve Windows Enterprise Application Deployment Reliability and Security using MSIX and MSIX Core Coming to Windows 7 and 8.1 in December, Plus New Features on the Horizon on Petri. Automatically updating applications with Windows App Installerīut probably the most important feature of Windows App Installer is the ability to automatically update UWP and Desktop Bridge AppX and MSIX applications without using the Microsoft Store. The files can be created with a text editor or generated using Visual Studio. The metadata lets you specify the main package, any optional packages linked to the main package, and any required app dependencies. In Redstone 4, or the Windows 10 April 2018 Update as it later became known, Microsoft expanded the capabilities of App Installer so that it could be used to install app packages from remote sources, like file shares and websites.Īlso, Microsoft added support for metadata defining an app package. The new app package installation experience was welcome, but it was designed for app package files already available on the local system disk. Remote sources, app package definitions, and auto updates in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update It provided a much-simplified experience for sideloading app packages. With App Installer, all you need to do is double click an app package and a dialog appears prompting you to install the app. That all changed in the Anniversary Update with the introduction of App Installer, a new Windows 10 component. appx file without going through the Microsoft Store, you needed to run a PowerShell script using the Add-AppxPackage cmdlet. Sideloading app packages in Windows 10 Anniversary Updateīefore the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, if you wanted to sideload an app package, i.e.

In this article, I’m going to look at the beginnings of Windows App Installer, how it evolved into what it is today, and what the future might hold. The future of the consumer Microsoft Store app in Windows 10 is unclear at the moment but nonetheless, Microsoft is gradually developing a technology called Windows App Installer to provide most of the features of the Store but for standalone app installers. With the news this month that Microsoft could be preparing to retire the Microsoft Store for Business the saga of Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps, which were meant to be the new modus operandi for Windows developers and the Desktop Bridge, which allows developers to bring win32 apps to the Microsoft Store the Windows 10 app story is a complicated one.

Microsoft store app installer