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MSIX Introduction Tutorial
I wrote this 24-chapter quick intro tutorial to help members from our team that want to learn more about MSIX. Thought I would share it with the community and help others too. Let me know if you anything you're looking if missing or not explained clear enough. PDf version is coming soon...MSIX Hero 1.4.3 now available
Hello, MSIX Hero will be soon almost 1 year old, but I have never done any bigger promotion on social media, with small exception of my Twitter 🙂 Anyway, I hope you will find it useful if you have not used it before. MSIX Hero is a freeware (for both personal + commercial use) MSIX swiss-knife. It makes local MSIX management and troubleshooting easier, and also contains various editors and helpers for app installer, MSIX app attach, PSF, winget, volumes, troubleshooting, updates, code-signing + much more. This version 1.4.3 comes with a new preview feature - graphical display of (nested) MSIX dependencies: You can read about the new version here: https://msixhero.net/2020/10/23/msix-hero-1-4-3-dependency-graph/ More feature highlights and downloads: https://msixhero.net/features/ This is a .NET Core 3.1 app running on Windows 10, packaged and distributed as MSIX. Your feedback and ideas are appreciated 🙂No Upgrade Scenario when Certificate Expires
Let's say you create a package (1.0.0.0), sign it, and deploy it. 6 months later you create an update (2.0.0.0), keep the package name the same and use the same cert to sign it. Then prior to the next release of your software your certificate expires, so you go out and purchase a new one, keeping the same "Subject/Publisher". And now you want to release a new version of your package. You can keep the package name the same, up the version string, and create version 3.0.0.0. On a system with version 1 installed, if you install version 2 it updates version 1. If you then install version 2, it does not work as an upgrade; the app is installed side by side. This is not a desired outcome, and should be addressed.
Winforms .exe in MSIX Package Does Not Startup After Auto Update
We are deploying a classic Winforms .exe via MISX. Approximately 20% of the time, the application does not start automatically after an auto update completes. After an update and failed start, we can trigger the application to startup by just typing random text into the Windows search bar. Another way we can trigger it to start is to re-launch the application via the start menu item, but of course two instances will then be running. We are testing with 5 separate workstations that have Windows 10 1903. I have logging in the Main method of the application in program.cs, so I can see that nothing attempts to execute after the auto update until the user intervenes. This has lead me to believe that there is nothing in the application itself causing the issue, but rather the MSIX framework or a configuration option. The appinstaller file - <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <AppInstaller Uri="{AppInstallerUri}" Version="{Version}" xmlns="<a href="<a href="<a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/appinstaller/2018" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/appinstaller/2018</a>" target="_blank"><a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/appinstaller/2018</a" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/appinstaller/2018</a</a>>" target="_blank"><a href="<a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/appinstaller/2018</a" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/appinstaller/2018</a</a>" target="_blank"><a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/appinstaller/2018</a</a" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/appinstaller/2018</a</a</a>>>"> <MainBundle Name="{Name}" Version="{Version}" Publisher="{Publisher}" Uri="{MainPackageUri}"/> <UpdateSettings> <OnLaunch HoursBetweenUpdateChecks="0" ShowPrompt="true" UpdateBlocksActivation="true"/> <AutomaticBackgroundTask/> <ForceUpdateFromAnyVersion>true</ForceUpdateFromAnyVersion> </UpdateSettings> </AppInstaller> The appxmanifest - <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <Package xmlns="<a href="<a href="<a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10</a>" target="_blank"><a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10</a" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10</a</a>>" target="_blank"><a href="<a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10</a" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10</a</a>" target="_blank"><a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10</a</a" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10</a</a</a>>>" xmlns:uap="<a href="<a href="<a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10</a>" target="_blank"><a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10</a" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10</a</a>>" target="_blank"><a href="<a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10</a" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10</a</a>" target="_blank"><a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10</a</a" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10</a</a</a>>>" xmlns:rescap="<a href="<a href="<a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10/restrictedcapabilities" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10/restrictedcapabilities</a>" target="_blank"><a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10/restrictedcapabilities</a" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10/restrictedcapabilities</a</a>>" target="_blank"><a href="<a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10/restrictedcapabilities</a" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10/restrictedcapabilities</a</a>" target="_blank"><a href="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10/restrictedcapabilities</a</a" target="_blank">http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/foundation/windows10/restrictedcapabilities</a</a</a>>>" IgnorableNamespaces="uap rescap"> <Identity Name="IMSPolicy.local" Publisher="CN=Foo, O=Foo, L=MyTown, S=MyState, C=US" Version="1.0.14.0" /> <Properties> <DisplayName>MyApp</DisplayName> <PublisherDisplayName>FooPublisher</PublisherDisplayName> <Logo>Images\StoreLogo.png</Logo> </Properties> <Dependencies> <TargetDeviceFamily Name="Windows.Universal" MinVersion="10.0.0.0" MaxVersionTested="10.0.0.0" /> <TargetDeviceFamily Name="Windows.Desktop" MinVersion="10.0.14393.0" MaxVersionTested="10.0.14393.0" /> </Dependencies> <Resources> <Resource Language="x-generate"/> </Resources> <Applications> <Application Id="App" Executable="$targetnametoken$.exe" EntryPoint="$targetentrypoint$"> <uap:VisualElements DisplayName="MyApp Dev" Description="MyApp application package" BackgroundColor="transparent" Square150x150Logo="Images\Square150x150Logo.png" Square44x44Logo="Images\Square44x44Logo.png"> <uap:DefaultTile Wide310x150Logo="Images\Wide310x150Logo.png" Square71x71Logo="Images\SmallTile.png" Square310x310Logo="Images\LargeTile.png"/> <uap:SplashScreen Image="Images\SplashScreen.png" BackgroundColor="white"/> </uap:VisualElements> </Application> </Applications> <Capabilities> <Capability Name="internetClient" /> <rescap:Capability Name="runFullTrust" /> </Capabilities> </Package>Microsoft MSIX Packaging Tool Preview Version 2023.1005 Video
I created a 20-minute video showing off, and explaining, the new features that can be seen in the Insiders's Preview version of the Microsoft MSIX Packaging Tool for fall 2023. https://www.tmurgent.com/AppV/MSIX/Videos/MMPT/2023.1005.mp4    InstalledLocationVirtualization
Currently, the documentation on this feature is, eh, minimalistic. I took the time to investigate this feature, including what it does and how it does it. It's freaking awesome. OK, not 100% of what I want but it has so much that we had asked for. I am now recommending this be added to pretty much all legacy software repackaged into MSIX. Information on what I found can be found in the white paper here: MSIX InstalledLocationVirtualization (tmurgent.com) . I encourage Microsoft to please update their own documentation of this feature and maybe make a bit of noise about it.
Notepad++ automatic language configuration
To make Notepad++ start automatically in the user's language, it is necessary to copy the corresponding language file from the installation directory "...\VFS\ProgramFilesX64\Notepad++\localization" to the user directory "...\Roaming\Notepad++" with the target name "nativeLang.xml". For the MSIX packaging i achieved this by using the PSF Powershell start script: PSF "config.json" { "enableReportError": true, "applications": [ { "id": "PSFLAUNCHEROne", "executable": "VFS\\ProgramFilesX64\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe", "arguments": "", "workingDirectory": "VFS\\ProgramFilesX64\\Notepad++", "scriptExecutionMode": "-ExecutionPolicy ByPass", "startScript": { "waitForScriptToFinish": true, "timeout": 30000, "runOnce": true, "showWindow": false, "scriptPath": "%MsixPackageRoot%\\VFS\\ProgramFilesX64\\Notepad++\\UserSettings.ps1", "scriptArguments": "'%MsixPackageRoot%' '%MsixWritablePackageRoot%'", "runInVirtualEnvironment": true } } ] } "UserSettings.ps1" Param ( [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)] $MsixPackageRoot, [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)] $MsixWritablePackageRoot ) $path = "Roaming\Notepad++" # Create MSIX AppData path $path = New-Item -type directory -path "$(($MsixWritablePackageRoot -split 'Local\\M')[0])$path" -Force # Get Language switch ((Get-UICulture).Name) { 'de-DE' { $Language = 'german' } 'es-ES' { $Language = 'spanish' } 'it-IT' { $Language = 'italian' } 'ko-KR' { $Language = 'korean' } Default { $Language = 'english' } } # Set Language Copy-Item -Path "$MsixPackageRoot\VFS\ProgramFilesX64\Notepad++\localization\$Language.xml" -Destination "$path\nativeLang.xml" -Force The switch in the Powershell script can be easily extended if additional languages are needed. If the user language is not considered by the switch, english is automatically configured as fallback.
Microsoft MSIX Packaging Tool: Package Editor Package Files Create Folder
When you are in the package editor, package files, you can right click on most folders to add a file. You cannot right click to add a folder. I found I can work around this by adding the file elsewhere, and then right-click the file and select move to edit the path where I want it to be. It would be better to be able to add the folder. Bonus points for remembering that adding to the VFS folder should probably be "special", and it would be great if that one gave a list of the variablized names that are allowed to select from!
