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Shashank450's avatar
Shashank450
Copper Contributor
Jun 09, 2020
Solved

MSIX - Permissions to App Folder?

I have an application which creates a log file in the application install directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\xyz\) upon shortcut launch. This can achieved well by granting permissions to the folder xyz...
MSIX Permissions
  • marcinotorowski's avatar
    marcinotorowski
    Jun 09, 2020

    This is a classic challenge where PSF (Package Support Framework) can help you, more specifically one of its fixups called File Redirection:

    https://github.com/Microsoft/MSIX-PackageSupportFramework/tree/master/fixups/FileRedirectionFixup

     

    You cannot set the permissions though, the MSIX has a built-in tamper protection, and prevents you from changing anything in the install directory. Instead, what PSF does for you is to redirect these calls to a place where there is a write grant (a special folder in local app data), and ensures that there is a transparent redirection on subsequent calls.

     

    Some basic regular expression knowledge may be required to achieve the desired results (depending on the pattern for the files to be redirected). A step-by-step instruction is here:

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/psf/package-support-framework

     

    Depending on the tooling you use, the support for PSF runtime from GUI may be also there, most of key players have already implemented it either way.

marcinotorowski's avatar
marcinotorowski
Brass Contributor
Jun 09, 2020

This is a classic challenge where PSF (Package Support Framework) can help you, more specifically one of its fixups called File Redirection:

https://github.com/Microsoft/MSIX-PackageSupportFramework/tree/master/fixups/FileRedirectionFixup

 

You cannot set the permissions though, the MSIX has a built-in tamper protection, and prevents you from changing anything in the install directory. Instead, what PSF does for you is to redirect these calls to a place where there is a write grant (a special folder in local app data), and ensures that there is a transparent redirection on subsequent calls.

 

Some basic regular expression knowledge may be required to achieve the desired results (depending on the pattern for the files to be redirected). A step-by-step instruction is here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/psf/package-support-framework

 

Depending on the tooling you use, the support for PSF runtime from GUI may be also there, most of key players have already implemented it either way.

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