How to install msixbundle

Предварительная установка упакованных приложений

Существует несколько средств, которые можно использовать для установки упакованного приложения MSIX на устройство для всех пользователей:

В этой статье приводятся общие сведения о работе предустановленных приложений, а также о подготовке таких приложений к работе и применении лицензий к ним.

Обзор

Предварительную установку к установке упакованных приложений можно разделить на два этапа:

Промежуточный процесс

Поэтапное создание упакованного приложения на устройстве — это процесс сохранения копии упакованного приложения в локальную файловую систему. Упакованное приложение можно размещать только один раз, и его можно выполнять без существующих учетных записей пользователей на устройстве.

Регистрация

После промежуточного создания упакованного приложения его можно зарегистрировать для пользователей на устройстве. Регистрация выполняется отдельно для каждого пользователя и начинается при входе пользователя устройства в систему. Затем операционная система загрузит предустановленный пакет приложений, создающий пользовательские данные приложения, создаст сопоставления типов файлов и плитки приложений в меню «Пуск». Это достигается благодаря службе App Rediness Service (ARS), которая учитывает все предварительно установленные приложения.

Пакеты подготовки

Вся подготовка приложений инкапсулирована в средстве DISM, и она выполняет как настройку промежуточного хранения, так и настройку ARS. Для подготовки ИТ-специалисту требуется пакет приложения (MSIX, MSIXBUNDLE, APPX или APPXBUNDLE) и пакеты зависимостей.

Начиная с версии Windows 10 1809, ИТ-профессионалы могут предварительно установить приложение с помощью подготовки. Подготовленные приложения будут установлены в центральное расположение — %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps и будут сразу же доступны зарегистрированным пользователям. Доступ к приложению будут иметь только пользователи с пакетом приложения MSIX, зарегистрированным в их учетной записи.

В Windows 10 2004 во время переподготовки подготовленное упакованное приложение будет переустановлено. Предыдущие версии Windows 10 препятствуют переустановке этих упакованных приложений, если пользователь ранее удалил упакованное приложение.

Принудительная подготовка

При обычной подготовке обновление не поможет переустановить приложение, удаленное пользователем. Если используется принудительная подготовка, ИТ-администратор может повторно подготовить приложение, чтобы переустановить его для всех пользователей. Это действие активируется с помощью команды PowerShell Add-ProvisionedAppxPackage, описание которой приведено ниже.

PowerShell

Список соответствующих команд PowerShell

Лицензирование

Лицензирование применяется только при подготовке приложения Магазина Windows. Любые другие приложения можно подготовить к работе без лицензий. Если приложение есть в Магазине, следует предоставить лицензию для компьютера при подготовке приложения к работе. Сейчас все предустановленные приложения для Магазина Windows должны быть бесплатными и настроены для предварительной установки через Центр партнеров Магазина Windows. После настройки пакет и лицензию для предварительной установки можно скачать, а затем разместить в любом образе.

Bundle MSIX packages

This article describes the process of creating a bundle after converting x86 and x64 versions of your Windows installers using the MSIX Packaging Tool.

Setup

You will need the following setup to successfully build an MSIX bundle:

Step 1: Find MakeAppx.exe

MakeAppx.exe is a tool available in the Windows 10 SDK that allows for packaging and bundling of MSIX packages. You will use this tool to bundle the two MSIX packages together.

MakeAppx.exe can be used to extract the file contents of a Windows 10 app package or bundle. It also encrypts and decrypts app packages and bundles.

After the Windows 10 SDK is installed, MakeAppx.exe is usually found here:

Step 2: Bundle the packages

The easiest way to bundle packages with MakeApp.exe is to add all the packages that you want to bundle together in one folder. The directory must be free of everything else except the packages that need to be bundled.

Move the app packages that you want to bundle into one directory, as shown in the following screenshot.

MakeAppx.exe only bundles packages that have the same identity, which means that the AppID, publisher, version needs to be the same. Only the package processor architecture for an application package can be different.

MakeAppx.exe has the following command line syntax.

Here is an example command.

Step 3: Sign the bundle

After you create the bundle, you must sign the package before you can distribute the app to your users or install it.

To sign a package, you will need a general code signing certificate and use SignTool.exe from the Windows 10 SDK.

We strongly recommend that you use a trusted cert from certificate authority as that allows for the package to be distributed and deployed on your end users devices seamlessly. Once you have access to the private certificate (.pfx file), you can sign the package as shown below.

SignTool.exe is available in the same directory as MakeAppx.exe in the Windows 10 SDK.

SignTool.exe has the following command line syntax.

Here is an example command.

For more information about signing app packages with SignTool.exe, see this article.

After successfully signing the bundle, you are ready to host it on a network share or on any content distribution network to distribute it to your users.

Android Apps on Windows 11 Dev Channel: How to Install Windows Subsystem for Android Manually With Msixbundle

Windows 11 Beta Channel users can now Android apps but surprisingly, the same is not available for the Insiders under the Dev channel. You would be forgiven to think the Dev channel will receive the new feature first of all. But anyway, here’s a way to install Windows Subsystem for Android on a Dev Channel Windows 11 build and be able to run Android apps.

How to install Windows Subsystem for Android

Method 1: Use PowerShell and a manual download

Step 1: Download Windows Subsystem for Android Msixbundle

Visit this Google Drive link (via) (Mirror: OneDrive) to download the Msixbundle file for Windows Subsystem for Android. Click Download.

Click Download anyway.

Step 2: Install Windows Subsystem for Android Msixbundle

Copy path of the Msixbundle file. Open the folder where your downloaded file is saved. Right-click on the file and select Copy as path.

Open Powershell. Press the Windows key and then type Powershell. From results, click Run as administrator.

In your Powershell window, type the command below:

Tips about the command above:

Here’s how it looks on our PC.

Hit the enter key to run the command.

You will get a message showing ‘Deployment operation progress’ and when it is done, the Windows Subsystem for Android will be installed on your PC with Windows 11 Dev channel.

When done, type Exit and then hit enter to exit Powershell.

To open Windows Subsystem for Android to run Android apps, press the Windows key and search for Windows Subsystem for Android.

Click Windows Subsystem for Android. Or click Open.

Now, you can run Android apps on your Windows 11 PC running Dev Channel builds. Hopefully, the official support comes over soon.

Step 1: Download Windows Subsystem for Android Msixbundle

Open this post in your desktop browser and copy the ‘Windows Subsystem for Android’ Store link to your Clipboard.

Now visit the Link Generator in your browser and paste the copied link in your clipboard in the text field on your screen.

Click on the drop-down menu beside the text box and select ‘Slow’.

Click on the ‘check mark’ to process the store link you pasted earlier.

You will now get download links for all the files queued for download when downloading Windows Subsystem for Android. Scroll to the bottom and right-click on the ‘.msix’ bundle which is 1.2 GB in size.

Now click on ‘Save as’ and download the file to a convenient location on your PC.

Once the file is downloaded, use the guide below to install the Windows Subsystem for Android on your PC.

Step 2: Install Windows Subsystem for Android Msixbundle

Press Windows + X and click on ‘Windows Terminal (Admin)’.

Windows Subsystem for Android will now be installed on your system.

Type in Exit to close Terminal.

You can now configure it from your Settings app and use the guides below to troubleshoot installing Android apps if you face any issues.

Unable to use Windows Subsystem for Android? Try this!

If you run into an error called Unable to Start Windows Subsystem for Android, then check out our guide below to fix it.

How to install Android apps

You will need to install apps using ADB (ADB install command, that is). Here is how to do this.

Fix the error ‘Virtual Machine Platform can not be found’

This is a nominal error and it simply means that you’re missing one of Windows’s add-on features. Use the guide below to install the Virtual Machine Platform on your system.

Press Windows + i on your keyboard to open the Settings app and click on ‘Apps’ on your left.

Click on ‘Optional features’.

Click on ‘More Windows features’ at the bottom.

Find ‘Virtual Machine Platform’ in this list and check the box beside it.

Now click on ‘Ok’.

The feature will now be installed on your PC. Once installed, you will be prompted for a restart. It is highly recommended that you restart your PC at this point.

Click on ‘Restart Now’ to get you started.

Once your system restarts, Windows Subsystem for Android should be up and running on your system.

How to use the Amazon App Store?

If you wish to use the Amazon App Store to download your apps then you will need to activate a VPN and change your region to USA for now. This will allow Amazon App Store to connect to the necessary servers which will allow you to log in to your Amazon account and download apps on your PC.

If you need any help regarding this, get in touch with us via the comments section below.

Happy Androiding on Windows!

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Kapil Malani

A die-hard Liverpool FC fan, Kapil is a big fan of Batman, Android and street Cricket. In that order, probably. Email: [email protected]

Installing Windows 10 apps from a web page

The ms-appinstaller scheme(protocol) has been disabled. This means App Installer will not be able to install an app directly from a web server and it will need to be downloaded first. Update the link on your website by removing ‘ms-appinstaller:?source=’ so that the MSIX package or.appinstaller file will be downloaded. This may increase the download size for some packages. The user can then install the package with App Installer.

Typically, an app needs to be locally available on a device before it can be installed with the App Installer. For the web scenario, this means that the user must download the app package from the web server, after which it can be installed with App Installer. This is inefficient and wastes disk space, which is why App Installer now has built in features to streamline the process.

App Installer can install an app directly from a web server. When the user clicks on an app package hosted web link, App Installer is invoked automatically. The user is then taken to the app info view in App Installer and is then one click away from engaging directly with the app.

The direct app install is only available in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update and newer. Previous versions of Windows (going back to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update) will be supported by the web install experience on previous versions of Windows 10. This experience is not as fluid as the direct app install, but it provides significant improvements to the existing app install procedure.

App Installer version must be greater than 1.0.12271.0 to support this feature.

Protocol Activation Scheme

In this mechanism, App Installer registers with the operating system for a protocol activation scheme. When user clicks on a web link, the browser checks with the OS for apps that are registered to that web link. If the scheme matches the protocol activation scheme specified by App Installer, then App Installer is invoked. It’s important to note that this mechanism is browser independent. This is beneficial to site administrators, for example, who don’t need to consider web browser differences while incorporating this into a webpage.

Requirements for protocol activation scheme

How to enable this on a webpage

App developers who want to host app packages on their web sites need to follow this step:

Prefix your app package URIs with the activation scheme ‘ms-appinstaller:?source=’ that App Installer is registered to when referencing them on your webpage. See the example for MyApp Web Page for details.

By prefixing the link to the Windows App, or AppInstaller file with ms-appinstaller:?source=» client devices will launch the Desktop App Installer, with details pertaining to the Windows App. MIME Types must be configured on the Web Server as this information will be shared with the Desktop App Installer informing of the file type and it’s file type association.

It is required that MIME-Types be configured for the Windows Apps and AppInstaller files that will be shared from your website. By including the MIME Types, the Desktop App Installer will quickly identify the file association and launch the information page with next steps. If not included, the Desktop App Installer must determine the file association which can negatively impact how quickly the Desktop App Installer will interpret the information and launch the Windows App installer. The only MIME-Types that are required to be configured on your Web Server are of the file types that will be hosted on your website.

If the Windows App installation media is hosted on a file share, and linked to from the website then MIME-Types need not be configured on the Web Server.

For more information on how to configure the MIME types, please visit Distribute a Windows 10 App from an IIS Server.

Signing the app package

For users to install your app, you will need to sign the app package with a trusted certificate. You can use a third party paid certificate from a trusted certification authority to sign your app package. If a third party certificate is used, the user will need to have their device in either sideload or developer mode to install and run your app.

If you are deploying an app to employees within an enterprise, you can use an enterprise issued certificate to sign the app. It’s important to note that the enterprise certificate must be deployed to any devices which the app will be installed on. For more information on deploying enterprise apps, see Enterprise app management.

Web install experience on previous versions of Windows 10

Invoking App Installer from the browser is supported on all versions of Windows 10 where App Installer is available (starting with the Anniversary Update). However, the functionality to install directly from the web without the need to download the package first is only available on the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

Users of previous versions of Windows 10 (with App Installer available) can also take advantage of web install of Windows 10 apps via App Installer, but will have a different user experience. When these users click the web link, App Installer will prompt to Download the package instead of Install. After download, App Installer will initiate the launch of the downloaded package automatically. Because the app package is downloaded from the web, these files will pass through Microsoft SmartScreen for a security check. Once the user provides permission to continue and then one more click on Install, the app is ready for use!

Although this flow isn’t quite as seamless as the direct install on Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, users can still quickly engage with the app. Additionally, with this flow the user doesn’t have to worry about app package files unnecessarily taking up space in drives. App Installer efficiently manages space by downloading the package to its app data folder and clearing packages when they are no longer needed.

Here’s a quick comparison of the Windows 10 Fall Creators update version of App Installer and the previous version of App Installer:

On versions prior to the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, App Installer cannot directly install an app from the web. On these versions, App Installer can only install app packages that are locally available. Instead, App Installer will download the package and require the user to double click the downloaded package to install.

Microsoft SmartScreen integration

Microsoft SmartScreen has always been part of the installation process for installing apps via App Installer. SmartScreen ensures users are safeguarded from malcontent that can make its way on to their devices. With the latest update to App Installer, SmartScreen integration is more seamless and robust, providing warnings when installing unknown apps and protecting devices from harm.

Written by Horatiu Vladasel · September 23rd, 2020

Bundle and Install MSIX packages

Although we consider that there’s still room for improvement, MSIX has developed a lot since its release in 2018. As detailed in the Microsoft MSIX feature support page, we can see that it has many new features supported by different versions of Windows.

Now, let’s go through what the MSIX Bundle is, what it has to offer and how it can be of help in application packaging.

What is the MSIXBundle?

In practice, with the MSIX Bundle, you can have both an MSIX package for the x86 version of your installer and another one for the x64 version, which you can include into one single package as a bundle.

So, what’s the main benefit of using an MSIX Bundle?

Having an MSIX Bundle for your application, instead of a separate MSIX package for each architecture brings a great benefit: a more scalable distribution of the application.

The MSIX bundle lets the App Installer know how to handle the installation, installing only the resources that are specific to the target device’s architecture. By bundling multiple MSIX packages together, you will only have to upload that MSIX Bundle to your distribution location. And then let the App Installer take care of the rest.

How to open an MSIXBundle file?

Similar to MSIX packages, the MSIX bundle uses a PKZip-based file compression which can be decompressed using any PKZip utility tool.

If you decompress an MSIX Bundle package, you will notice that the file resources have been replaced by the MSIX packages that are bundled into the MSIX Bundle package.

Also, you will see that instead of the AppxManifest.xml file that contains all the information the system needs (in order to deploy, display and update the MSIX package), you will see the AppxBundleManifest.xml.

Here’s how the opened manifest file looks for an MSIX Bundle package:

As you can see above, the manifest file includes only two elements:

How to Create an MSIX Bundle?

Let’s suppose that you have two MSIX packages, one x86 and one x64 version of an application, with: one xml file common in both x64 and x86 architectures and for each package, one xml file that addresses the specific architecture.

Each version reads the content of the two corresponding configuration xml files and displays the content on the screen, as seen below.

If you want to create an MSIX Bundle to include the two MSIX packages, all you need is the MakeAppx tool. You can find this tool in any Windows 10 SDK version, starting with 1809.

Basically, all you need to do is to copy the two MSIX packages into the same folder and then run the following command line:

The bundled MSIX packages must have the same AppID, Publisher, and Version. The only component that can be different is the Package Process Architecture. If they don’t meet these requirements, you will encounter the following error whilst attempting to bundle them using the MakeAppx.exe tool:

Once the MSIX Bundle is signed, you are ready to distribute it to wherever is needed without worrying about the process architecture of the target devices.

To test it, take the MSIX Bundle package you just created and install it on a device.

As you will see, the App Installer GUI is the same as for a standard MSIX package.

Once the msixbundle is installed, if you break into the MSIX container, you will see that only the resources that are specific to the target device’s architecture are installed.

What if you don’t have the MSIX packages ready for bundling?

Having different architectures of the same application both in production is not a common use case for an enterprise. But, if you still need to create an MSIX Bundle, a more practical solution would be to use a full packaging tool, such as Advanced Installer.

To achieve that, in addition to following the standard steps in Advanced Installer for creating an MSIX package, all you will need to do is:

1. Go to the “Builds” page and select your MSIX Build. From there, tick the “Create a bundle with individual packages inside” box and select the architectures you need.

2. Configure the Source Path and Per Build for each of the file resources that are required only for a specific system architecture.

And that’s it! Your MSIXBundle is now ready to be distributed wherever you want.

Conclusion

Even though the need for multiple architectures of the same application is not that common within the Enterprise environment, the MSIX Bundle could still be something to consider depending on the organization’s needs.

For example, some organizations still use the x86 version of Windows and they may need to work with an MSIX Bundle for a more efficient distribution.

You can also use Configuration Manager to deploy your applications, and achieve the same result with the classic approach: having separate MSIX packages for each architecture.

Consider that you will need to have the following:

Have you used the MSIX Bundle yet? Let us know your experience in the comments below.

Msixbundle: FAQ

What is an Msixbundle?

An MSIXBundle file is an app packaging format that contains numerous MSIX packages bundled together, each being capable of supporting a distinct and specific system architecture (x86, x64, or ARM).

How do you build an MSIX bundle?

How do I open a Msixbundle package?