UWP app start with arguments

Heiko 1,211

I have a WPF UWP bridge app, which I want to place in the startup folder that starts the app hidden. When the user then starts the app, the already started app instance will be activated and shown.

So I want to set the following arguments to the shortcut file MyApp.lnk:

explorer.exe shell:AppsFolder\MyName.MyApp_xxxxxxxxxxxxx!App hide

I added the 'hide' word to pass it as arguments for MyApp, but unfortunately the explorer.exe opens itself instead of MyApp.

Is there any way or an argument switch for explorer.exe so that I can pass MyApp and an argument for MyApp?

Roy Li - MSFT 32,091 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-06-20T07:03:50.313+00:00

So you want to give arguments when you tried to launch it from a command line, right? You could take a look at this blog: Command-Line Activation of Universal Windows Apps. The blog gives an example of how to activate a UWP app from a command line and pass the app arbitrary command-line arguments
Roy Li - MSFT 32,091 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2022-06-24T03:18:29.64+00:00

@Heiko Any updates about this?
Heiko 1,211 Reputation points

2022-06-24T16:20:15.353+00:00

Thanks for the tip. I will test it on occasion.

Heiko 1,211

Thank you again! I added only the following to the package manifest file of the package project. Then I can call the WPF app with arguments from command line or via lnk file.

<Package  
	xmlns:uap3="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10/3"  
	xmlns:desktop="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/desktop/windows10"  
	IgnorableNamespaces="uap3 desktop">  
	<Applications>  
		<Application>  
			<Extensions>  
				<uap3:Extension Category="windows.appExecutionAlias" EntryPoint="Windows.FullTrustApplication">  
					<uap3:AppExecutionAlias>  
						<desktop:ExecutionAlias Alias="MySSM.exe" />  
					</uap3:AppExecutionAlias>  
				</uap3:Extension>  
			</Extensions>  
		</Application>  
	</Applications>  
</Package>