Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store
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Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store
#2And all you have to do is convert it into a UWP app:
>A few months ago, during Build 2016, we announced the Desktop Bridge, enabling developers to bring their existing desktop apps and games over to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) by converting their app or game with the Desktop App Converter and then enhancing and extending it with UWP functionality. This then enables the path to gradually migrate the app or game to reach all Windows 10 devices over time, including phones, Xbox One and HoloLens.
Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store
#3How's the current quality? When I used a Windows Phone for a while, the store was horribly swamped by featureless spamware, esp. compared to Apple's store or even Play.
Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store
#4And all you have to do is convert it into a UWP app: >A few months ago, during Build 2016, we announced the Desktop Bridge, enabling developers to bring their existing desktop apps and games over to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) by converting their app or game with the Desktop App Converter and then enhancing and extending it with UWP functionality. This then enables the path to gradually migrate the app or ga…
You run the converter on your complied exe installer, not your applications code. That a fairly low barrier.
Seems to make the Store very backwards compatible, it can even convert VB6 apps: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PuttingMyVB6WindowsAppsInTheWi...
Also if you want to go from exe rather than installer you can use makeappx directly https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/porting/desktop...
Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store
#5How's the current quality? When I used a Windows Phone for a while, the store was horribly swamped by featureless spamware, esp. compared to Apple's store or even Play.
The few apps I've installed were high quality. The biggest issue is that they were all optimized for phone/tablet and not for desktop use.
Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store
#6And all you have to do is convert it into a UWP app: >A few months ago, during Build 2016, we announced the Desktop Bridge, enabling developers to bring their existing desktop apps and games over to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) by converting their app or game with the Desktop App Converter and then enhancing and extending it with UWP functionality. This then enables the path to gradually migrate the app or ga…
You run the converter on your complied exe installer, not your applications code. That a fairly low barrier. Seems to make the Store very backwards compatible, it can even convert VB6 apps: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PuttingMyVB6WindowsAppsInTheWi... Also if you want to go from exe rather than installer you can use makeappx directly https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/porting/desktop...
What if I'm using something more modern, like chocoaltey? MSI has never played well with CI servers and wix is way too complicated.
Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store
#7Can be.
Won't be.
And if they are nobody will notice.
Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
You run the converter on your complied exe installer, not your applications code. That a fairly low barrier. Seems to make the Store very backwards compatible, it can even convert VB6 apps: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PuttingMyVB6WindowsAppsInTheWi... Also if you want to go from exe rather than installer you can use makeappx directly https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/porting/desktop...
What if I'm using something more modern, like chocoaltey? MSI has never played well with CI servers and wix is way too complicated.
Nano server (variant of Server 2016) which has no UI component at all has adopted the appx for Windows Server apps (WSA) so I'd imagine the tooling will improve there.
Though you can also build one with a text editor and command line: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/nanoserver/2015/11/19/ha...
Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store
#9OK. So I converted our app from MSI to AppX (using Advanced Installer so it was just another output from the same project). Publishing to Store is underway.
What next? What are the UWP APIs/functionality worth adding to an existing Win32 app?
Re: Win32 and .NET desktop apps can now be published in the Windows Store
#10And all you have to do is convert it into a UWP app: >A few months ago, during Build 2016, we announced the Desktop Bridge, enabling developers to bring their existing desktop apps and games over to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) by converting their app or game with the Desktop App Converter and then enhancing and extending it with UWP functionality. This then enables the path to gradually migrate the app or ga…
You run the converter on your complied exe installer, not your applications code. That a fairly low barrier. Seems to make the Store very backwards compatible, it can even convert VB6 apps: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PuttingMyVB6WindowsAppsInTheWi... Also if you want to go from exe rather than installer you can use makeappx directly https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/porting/desktop...
VB6? That's... the awesome kind of crazy. How does the converter deal with the VB6 runtime that had to be distributed?
Oh dude, this brings back some memories... but I have to admit, for long time there was nothing except VB6 if you wanted to put together GUI apps with very little code and a WYSIWYG GUI designer.