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Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store

blogs.windows.com

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Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store

#81

Post by icebraining »

flukus wrote: post #73
raesene6 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally the way I've seen sudo implemented in all desktop linuxes is that after providing a password the process gets all access. This to me isn't a great trade off as it relies on the user invoking the process understanding the security risks they're taking, which is a tricky one. Sure you can do more with sudo, but unless it's the default, most people won't

There's room for improvemnt, it's just the best trade off I've seen. Windows has it's "click yes to continue" buttons, android has it's permissions thing that is useless to everyone. At least making people pause and type a password might make them think about what they're doing a bit.

The best trade off I've seen is what Nokia's S60 (and iOS, or so I've heard) did: have granular permissions like Android, but show a dialog when the app first tries to use them, instead of having a laundry list at installation time.

You're more likely to think twice when you open your flashlight app and it asks "Do you want to allow [Flashlight App] to read all your contacts?"

Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store

#82

Post by youdontknowtho »

flohofwoe wrote: post #70
benaadams wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does a conversion of one of your Win32 exes run with the new system? Can do a manual convert ( https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/porting/desktop... ) or use the tool to create the appx then double click to install, I believe...

I'll try that as soon as I'm back on my Win10 laptop. If this works well it will be highly preferable over an UWP port, because too many compromises have to be made to run games on top of UWP. What I'd actually like to see is a new application model and set of APIs 100% focuses on games, in the original spirit of DirectX. The required API footprint for games is minimal and should be easy to sandbox. None of the exist…

I think that's the direction things are heading. If you look at the compositor API's they are trying to make the whole XAML layer easier to interop with DX because DX is where the perf and flexibility are.

Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store

#83

Post by douche »

flukus wrote: post #64
Already__Taken wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like they want MSI to go away. I'm finding it harder and harder to find published ones.

The kind of tried it years ago by not including setup projects in visual studio (MS Developers think publishing directly from VS is a good idea), the problem was there wasn't a better alternative. I didn't mind NSIS (nullsoft of winamp fame), but it was weird to say the least. Install scripts were a high level, domain specefic variant of assembly...

We switched to Advanced Installer when that happened.

Now I notice that probably 50% of the MSIs that I run are using the AdvancedInstaller dialog skins.

Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store

#84

Post by benaadams »

kodfodrasz wrote: post #65
swiley wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I think not having a global filesystem makes things harder for the "average user." Most college students aren't going to only keep their word documents in word for example, they need to email them and upload them to tools like blackboard.

this is why shared storages are also needed, where apps can have a common view of some set of data.

You go via the Save/Load dialogs which give access to a file; apps just aren't given non-permission/user-interaction file enumeration by default except for certain directories https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/uwp/files/file-acce...

Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store

#85

Post by CyberDildonics »

So does this mean that there is a sandbox/jail that can be used arbitrarily? One of the biggest problems on windows is that you never know what an installer is going to do. Most average people's computers are bogged down with 20 things running all the time. Even without malware most people's computers slow down until they buy a new one.

Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store

#86

Post by flukus »

icebraining wrote: post #81
flukus wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's room for improvemnt, it's just the best trade off I've seen. Windows has it's "click yes to continue" buttons, android has it's permissions thing that is useless to everyone. At least making people pause and type a password might make them think about what they're doing a bit.

The best trade off I've seen is what Nokia's S60 (and iOS, or so I've heard) did: have granular permissions like Android, but show a dialog when the app first tries to use them, instead of having a laundry list at installation time. You're more likely to think twice when you open your flashlight app and it asks "Do you want to allow [Flashlight App] to read all your contacts?"

It that once off or every time? There have been a few Android apps that started off OK and transitioned to spyware.

Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store

#87

Post by benaadams »

garganzol wrote: post #74
ctolkien wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the store is just one distribution model. The web, or whatever is also fine.

That's interesting. Is there any practical step-by-step guide on how to achieve this? Or at least any sample website that offers installable downloads in APPX/UWP format? The last time I tried it wasn't possible at all without some PowerShell black voodoo scripts with some temporary certificates and other royal pain points rendering the whole technology totally useless. I could not even run my own appx apps because t…

Settings -> Update and Security -> "For Developers" -> Developer mode ("Install any signed app")

Or install your certificate in Trusted Root Certification Authorities

Or buy an application signing certificate from a Certification Authority

Or distribute via the Store which signs for installation for you.

Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store

#88

Post by flukus »

benaadams wrote: post #84
kodfodrasz wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is why shared storages are also needed, where apps can have a common view of some set of data.

You go via the Save/Load dialogs which give access to a file; apps just aren't given non-permission/user-interaction file enumeration by default except for certain directories https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/uwp/files/file-acce...

Sounds like it's not possible to create a custom file manager, or space visualizer or anything like that?

Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store

#89

Post by CyberDildonics »

Animats wrote: post #15

The day will come when you won't be able to install an "app" from anywhere other than the Windows Store. Microsoft will want a big cut of the sale price. Bad security is a feature. If platforms were secure against hostile applications, we wouldn't need app stores.

I don't know why this is buried, it is absolutely true. What windows users need are some sort of sandbox / container / jail where registry / file system / system calls are isolated. Then you could package up a program into one file and delete it to uninstall it like one file. This could have been done decades ago and now microsoft is banking off of the fact that they never did.

Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store

#90

Post by youdontknowtho »

douche wrote: post #76
youdontknowtho wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who actually make money on windows development know that WPF and Win32 are not deprecated. In fact, they don't really deprecate things. They may stop pushing something as the new hotness...but VB6 apps still run on windows. Those data access technologies that no one uses anymore...those still work on windows. If you are worried about your investment in time not being the new hotness, well that's one thing. If…

Silverlight may be the one glaring exception to that rule that I can think of. I don't think even IE or Edge support that anymore, which makes it dead. I had an ex-girlfriend whose employer made a big bet on Silverlight for their web app platform... in 2012. Having to rewrite it all in HTML5 and JS a year later almost put them under.

Actually, this is really weird, but yeah, you can still use Silverlight. Until very recently the inTune portal still used Silverlight.

I dig what you are saying though. They had some very confused messaging about the web as a platform for a long time. They finally stopped the BS, though, and have gone whole hog on the web.

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