Packaging a .NET Core 3.0 application with MSIX

Hello Matteo Pagani

i failed to create a framework dependent msix with:

• .net5 WPF App (depends on native sqlite dll)
• wap project

My resulting msix is always about 70MB , though the compiled Framework-dependent wersion would only be 5MB.

Its so big, because it contains the net framework.

Excerpt from the msix with 7zip:

Path: "MyAppPackage_1.0.16.0_x64.msixbundle\MyApp.Package_1.0.16.0_x64.msix\MyApp\"

What have i tried without success:

- removing RuntimeIdentifiers in my csproj (which you've suggested in your post)

- added SelfContained=False in my wapproj

Please provide an minimal example on github and/or an explanation on howto create a framework dependent package with net5 (with WPF and native Nuget Dependency) and WAP.

Native Dependency i depend on: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Sqlite/5.0.1?_src=template

I've created a minimal working example: https://github.com/juwens/WpfNet5Msix/tree/main/WpfCoreApp
For the sake of simplicity i created it with VS 2019, so the Wpf Proj runs with dotnet core 3.1 and wpf.
It's super straight forward, open VS create WPF Proj, add Wap Proj, configure Wap to package WpfProj, disable Bundle.
Nothing else, no nuget packages or any code, to keep it simple.

The Result: 60MB msix file

Feel free to fork and edit my repo.

Thanks in advance.