Edit

Distribute your packaged desktop app

  • Article

If you decide to package your desktop app in an MSIX package (see Building an MSIX package from your code), you can publish your packaged application to the Microsoft Store or sideload it on to one or more devices.

Note

Do you have a plan for how you might transition users to your packaged application? Before you distribute your app, see the Transition users to your packaged app section of this guide to get some ideas.

Distribute your application by publishing it to the Microsoft Store

The Microsoft Store is a convenient way for customers to get your app.

Publish your application to the Microsoft Store to reach the broadest audience. Also, organizational customers can acquire your application to distribute internally to their organizations through the Microsoft Store for Business.

If you plan to publish to the Microsoft Store, you'll be asked a few extra questions as part of the submission process. That's because your package manifest declares a restricted capability named runFullTrust, and we need to approve your application's use of that capability. You can read more about this requirement here: Restricted capabilities.

You don't have to sign your application before you submit it to the Store.

Important

If you plan to publish your application to the Microsoft Store, make sure that your application operates correctly on devices that run Windows 10 S or Windows 11 S. This is a Store requirement. See Test your Windows app for Windows 10 S or Windows 11 S.

Distribute your application without placing it onto the Microsoft Store

If you'd rather distribute your application without using the Store, you can manually distribute apps to one or more devices.

This might make sense if you want greater control over the distribution experience or you don't want to get involved with the Microsoft Store certification process.

To distribute your application to other devices without placing it in the Store, you have to obtain a certificate, sign your application by using that certificate, and then sideload your application onto those devices.

You can create a certificate or obtain one from a popular vendor such as Verisign.

If you plan to distribute your application onto devices that run Windows 10 S or Windows 11 S, your application has to be signed by the Microsoft Store so you'll have to go through the Store submission process before you can distribute your application onto those devices.

If you create a certificate, you have to install it into the Trusted Root or Trusted People certificate store on each device that runs your app. If you get a certificate from a popular vendor, you won't have to install anything onto other systems besides your app.

Important

Make sure that the publisher name on your certificate matches the publisher name of your app.

To sign your application by using a certificate, see Sign an application package using SignTool.

To sideload your application onto other devices, see Sideload LOB apps in Windows.

Transition users to your packaged app

Before you distribute your app, consider adding a few extensions to your package manifest to help users get into the habit of using your packaged app. Here's a few things you can do.

  • Point existing Start tiles and taskbar buttons to your packaged app.
  • Associate your packaged application with a set of file types.
  • Make your packaged application open certain types of files by default.

For the complete list of extensions and the guidance for how to use them, see Transition users to your app.

Also, consider adding code to your packaged application that accomplishes these tasks:

  • Migrates user data associated with your desktop application to the appropriate folder locations of your packaged app.
  • Gives users the option to uninstall the desktop version of your app.

Let's talk about each one of these tasks. We'll start with user data migration.

Migrate user data

If you're going to add code that migrates user data, it's best to run that code only when the application is first started. Before you migrate the users data, display a dialog box to the user that explains what is happening, why it is recommended, and what's going to happen to their existing data.

Here's an example of how you could do this in a .NET-based packaged app.

private void MigrateUserData()
{
    String sourceDir = Environment.GetFolderPath
        (Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData) + "\\AppName";

    if (sourceDir != null)
    {
        DialogResult migrateResult = MessageBox.Show
            ("Would you like to migrate your data from the previous version of this app?",
             "Data Migration", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo);

        if (migrateResult.Equals(DialogResult.Yes))
        {
            String destinationDir =
                Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder.Path + "\\AppName";

            Process process = new Process();
            process.StartInfo.FileName = "robocopy.exe";
            process.StartInfo.Arguments = "%LOCALAPPDATA%\\AppName " + destinationDir + " /move";
            process.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
            process.Start();
            process.WaitForExit();

            if (process.ExitCode > 1)
            {
                //Migration was unsuccessful -- you can choose to block/retry/other action
            }
        }
    }
}

Uninstall the desktop version of your app

It is better not to uninstall the users desktop application without first asking them for permission. Display a dialog box that asks the user for that permission. Users might decide not to uninstall the desktop version of your app. If that happens, you'll have to decide whether you want to block usage of the desktop application or support the side-by-side use of both apps.

Here's an example of how you could do this in a .NET-based packaged app.

To view the complete context of this snippet, see the MainWindow.cs file of this sample WPF picture viewer with transition/migration/uninstallation.

private void RemoveDesktopApp()
{
    //Typically, you can find your uninstall string at this location.
    String uninstallString = (String)Microsoft.Win32.Registry.GetValue
        (@"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion" +
         @"\Uninstall\{7AD02FB8-B85E-44BC-8998-F4803BA5A0E3}\", "UninstallString", null);

    //Detect if the previous version of the Desktop application is installed.
    if (uninstallString != null)
    {
        DialogResult uninstallResult = MessageBox.Show
            ("To have the best experience, consider uninstalling the "
              + " previous version of this app. Would you like to do that now?",
              "Uninstall the previous version", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo);

        if (uninstallResult.Equals(DialogResult.Yes))
        {
                    string[] uninstallArgs = uninstallString.Split(' ');

            Process process = new Process();
            process.StartInfo.FileName = uninstallArgs[0];
            process.StartInfo.Arguments = uninstallArgs[1];
            process.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;

            process.Start();
            process.WaitForExit();

            if (process.ExitCode != 0)
            {
                //Uninstallation was unsuccessful - You can choose to block the application here.
            }
        }
    }

}

Next steps

Have questions? Ask us on our Tech Community.

If you encounter issues publishing your application to the Store, this blog post contains some useful tips.