MSIX automatic updates and authentication

javier_andres
Copper Contributor
Aug 09, 2021
Hi Tanaka_Jimha, is there any news?
- TIMOTHY_MANGAN
  MVP
  Aug 12, 2021
  In looking at this thread, while it might be nice if the AppInstaller file functionality included an auth feature, I'm not sure we need it.
  
  Typically in any kind of packaged deployments, the package is user agnostic and the tooling provides authentication. The AppInstaller file is used as something sent to be installed, so auth might not be needed here. Instead, I think that authentication should be implemented by the "hoster" on the actual MSIX file. So if UNC file share that means ACLs, and for Http/S some sort of logon permissions. The latter might be harder to do, but I'm assuming that this is an enterprise situation that would be using UNC.
  - javier_andres
    Copper Contributor
    Aug 13, 2021
    Hi TIMOTHY_MANGAN, Excuse me but I don't understand you.
    Referring to the following link https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/app-installer/web-install-azure
    The MSIX installer does not work when Azure AD authentication is enabled.
JoshKBCCG
Copper Contributor
Aug 20, 2020
Tanaka_Jimha

Edit: made this a separate post.

I'm wondering if this backlog item will solve my issue, which is I want to host the https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/app-installer/installing-windows10-apps-web in an Azure web app behind Easy Auth so that only users in the linked Active Directory can access the installation download.

Easy Auth works as expected to require login to the web page, but the App Installer experience fails with 'An error occurred while accessing the file from the web. Please try downloading and opening the file locally.' I'm guessing this same issue will impact the automatic update functionality of the UWP app as well.

~~Curious if 'AppInstaller user authentication' would solve this problem, or if it will be an authentication experience after the MSIX package has already been downloaded.~~
Martin82
Copper Contributor
Aug 06, 2020
HiTanaka_Jimha ,
thx for your reply back in January. I've checked a few sources about msix development, but couldn't find anything about this. Do you have an update or can you point me at some alternatives how to implement customer specific versions with automatic updates?

thx and br,
Martin
- Tanaka_Jimha
  Former Employee
  Aug 18, 2020
  Hi Martin82,
  
  Can you please elaborate on "customer specific versions". Do you mean being able to distribute certain versions of your package depending on who is trying to install the app?
  
  Thanks,
  
  Tanaka
  - Martin82
    Copper Contributor
    Aug 18, 2020
    HiTanaka_Jimha ,
    
    yes, thats exactly what we want to achieve. We produce about 4-6 Versions of our desktop products per year, but there are dependencies on external services and databases, so we can't roll out the update for everyone at the same time. (And some updates need our consulting colleagues, and so we have to enable the update per customer after the preparation is done).
    
    During writing this reply, I found a documentation https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/non-store-developer-updates for manual updates with the package manager. I'm not sure when the capabilities to use http-Uris for AddPackageAsync where added - the documentation still stays only local file shares are supported - but it seems we can use this, instead of the authentication.
    
    I'll try it out sometime in the future, but it looks like we don't need the authentication anymore.
    
    Thanks,
    Martin

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MSIX automatic updates and authentication

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