Develop Reference

Installer for .net core 3 wpf/winforms (non MSIX)?

So, we finished a few wpf conversions to .net core, and now we have a need to ship one to an external client as an installer. Previously we used ClickOnce, but that has been deprecated in .net core and will not be ported according to MS, with them recommending MSIX. However, as we understood from docs, even though we'll sideload a WPF application it will still run in a sandbox with a virtualized file system. And that is a no go for us, it has obviously been designed with UWP+Marketplace delivery in mind. We need the application on the file system with full access to file system, the "good old way".
We could just ship them as a zip file and have the client unpack, but management deemed that as not-so-professional, so we need a delivery package similar to what msi/clickonce had. Has anyone delivered apps on core outside MSIX?

EDIT: Microsoft has announced they are going to include ClickOnce support in .NET 5
You can deploy .NET Core and .NET 5 applications internally in an organization by sideloading msix packages.
I have been successfully using Clickonce for deploying .NET line of business applications for years.
Now that I’m updating my apps to .NET Core I wanted something similar to Clickonce. In other words: publishing your installer in a network share and deploying your autoupdating app to your clients by simply coping a shortcut to your installer.
You can achieve this with msix packages. The problem is that you are limited to Windows 10 version 1709, and later
The solution came on December 19th with MSIX Core 1.1. Packaging your app with msix core support you can target Windows 7 SP1 and later, and this is something I needed because at work we are slowly transitioning to Windows 10 from Windows 7 and I still have to support old versions of windows.
The steps for packaging your .net core app using msix core are:
Create a Windows application packaging project in your solution.
Right click on the Applications subfolder of your Windows application packaging project and select Add Reference. Then select your target project.
Change your Package.manifest (reference: msix-packaging/MsixCore at master · microsoft/msix-packaging · GitHub) Right click your Package.manifest file and select View code Change your to:
<Dependencies>
<TargetDeviceFamily Name="MSIXCore.Desktop" MinVersion="6.1.7601.0" MaxVersionTested="10.0.10240.0" />
<TargetDeviceFamily Name="Windows.Desktop" MinVersion="10.0.16299.0" MaxVersionTested="10.0.18362.0" />
</Dependencies>
With this you stablish your min version to MSIXCore.Desktop in other words Windows 7 sp1.
Right click your Windows application packaging project and select Publish then Create App Packages.
Choose Sideloading then check Enable automatic updates.
In order to install the package in the client machine you must sign it. I recommend you to create a self-signed certificate. You must install the certificate in the client machine so that the package is trusted and you can install it. If you are in a domain you can deploy your self-signed certificate with a group policy.
The optimal situation is to sign the package with a trusted certificate provided by a trusted root certification authority. My personal choice is to create a certificate in my own windows certification authority (which is trusted in my local domain). If you decide to sign your package with a trusted cert this is the command line:
.\SignTool.exe sign /fd SHA256 /a /f yourcert.pfx /p yourpassword *.appx
Select Generate app bundle to Never.
Select your network share for publishing the package
In order to execute your package installer in Windows 7 sp1 machines you must previously install msixmgrSetup-1.1.0.0-x64.msi or msixmgrSetup-1.1.0.0-x86.msi accordingly. You can find the installer here
Windows 10 machines will recognize the installer right away.
If you want to know more about msix packages you have a good explanation here
I hope this guide helps you to get your deployment system working.

Well, apparently, we are again faced with "our way or the highway" from MS, so we just used Inno Setup. Until such time we get a proper installation process or MSIX allows unsandboxed setup without unnecessary file system abstraction, this will have to do.

There are other tools such as Advanced Installer or InstallShield that can create a MSI/EXE installer now and later in case you decide to go with the MSIX, you will just add a new build to your current project.
The tool will automatically sync the content of the MSI with the MSIX, or at least this is what Advanced Installer does for you.
They also have a VS Extension, so you can build the installer inside your Visual Studio IDE.

How to publishing to .IPA from VS for Mac

I wanna Publishing .IPA,This step is success,but I cant install in my Iphone via Xcode,that show :
BTW, I can use Xcode with Swift publish .IPA ,and success install it,
but I'm must use Xamarin.
Thanks!

For publishing your application on App store, you need to sign the application using distribution provisioning profile and certificate. By using distribution provisioning profile you can't install your application on device.
If you need to install your application on device please use the development provisioning profile and certificate to sign the application.
For further reference please visit -
XCode 8 A valid provisioning profile for this executable was not found

MetroLog does not working after install appx file in windows phone 10

I've install the MetroLog package from Nuget into UWP solution (VS2015).
In debug mode everything works fine -
it create a log file in local folder and write contents inside.
When i create an .appx file, copy it into the WP device and install it,
nothing happend, the MetroLog does not create any log file.
Please, need help?

MetroLog is supported in UWP. And by default, in will store logs in the app's LocalState folder. So the key point here is how to access LocalState (LocalFolder) folder in Windows 10 Mobile.
Usually, we may use some third party tools like IsoStoreSpy or Windows Phone Power Tools to access Isolated Storage. With these tools, we can access LocalFolder, TemporaryFolder and RoamingFolder. However, these two tools can only works when the application is deployed in Debug mode.
For now, it is suggested to use App File Explorer to view and manipulate files stored by your sideloaded apps. This tool should be able to work no matter your application is deployed in Debug mode or Release mode. But please note that this is a new tool added to Windows Device Portal in the Anniversary Update.
To use this feature, we need enable Device discovery and Device Portal. For more info, please see Using the App File Explorer to see your app data.

How to merge two projects WinRT with Windows.Forms in Visual Studio 2015

In endeavours as to learn C# and toy with the app-store-like approach too, I now have two applications;
Web TVGuide (WinRT with publically sealed exposed C# classed backed)
A WebTV Player (winforms + WebBrowser/ActiveX) and .
First intentions was to upload #1 (the WinRT) to appstore - and provide a link to #2, hosted on my private page...
But im wondering as to how i would go about merging the two projects under one solution in order to package them together as one. I am betting that this also would remove some of my requirements for WFC Service (IPC) communications.
Structure follows to give a little insight;
Can i 'launch' the WinRT TVGuide from my Windows.Forms application - without having to run two setup packages - and call via Process?

You could ease the future development by having both projects inside the same solution and move all the shared core code (if any) to a PCL project. However, the other plans you have won't really work.
Launching a WinRT application from a Windows Forms application is only possible if the app is already installed on the user's machine. If the application is available, you can launch it using the IApplicationActivationManager COM interface.
I think that your best bet is to count on users installing the WinRT app and then link to the Windows Forms application from an about page or something.
Here's a nice article detailing the use of IApplicationActivationManager:
Launching Windows Store Apps Programmatically
Edit: Upon further investigation, it looks like I might have been slightly wrong. There actually is a legit way to sideload Windows Store applications but it requires jumping through quite a few hoops. However, you should be able to install both the Windows Forms application and the WinRT application with your own installer and then launch the WinRT app like you wanted to.
Here are the quick steps for reference. For a detailed explanation, see Install a Windows 8 Modern UI app without the Windows Store.
Windows 8 and 8.1
Enable Allow all trusted apps to install group policy
Sign the app with a CA that is trusted on the target PC
Run a PowerShell command to install the application. For example Add-AppxPackage C:\app1.appx –DependencyPath C:\winjs.appx
In some cases, enterprise sideloading product keys need to be used. Check out the linked answer for more details on that one.
Windows 10
I also took a look at how it's done on Windows 10, and here are my findings. Microsoft has taken a more relaxed approach on sideloading apps to a Windows 10 installation. Differences to the earlier versions are the following:
You can unlock a device for sideloading using an enterprise policy, or through Settings
License keys are not required
Devices do not have to be joined to a domain
The requirements for sideloading are the following:
Devices need to be unlocked for sideloading (unlock policy enabled)
Certificate assigned to app
Signed app package
And finally here are the steps to take:
Turn on sideloading - you can push a policy with an MDM provider, or you can use Settings.
Trust the app - import the security certificate to the local device.
Install the app - use PowerShell to install the app package.
Take a look at this article for detailed steps on how to achieve app sideloading on Windows 10.

Install developed Application without developer mode

I developed an Windows 10 UWP Application. This application should be used in the company, so I build it via the built in tool of Visual Studio 2015.
To do that i followed this guide : Packaging Universal Windows apps for Windows 10
This worked fine, and i don't have a problem to install the Add-AppDevPackage.ps1 via Windows Powershell when i have the "developer mode" enabled.
Now the problem:
I don't want that my employees have to activate the developer mode. They should activate the "sideload applications" option. When this option is checked the shell allways asks me to activate the developer mode and fails if I don't activate it.
So what do I have to do, that it is enough to activate the "sideload applications" option to install my developed application?
When I built the apppackage i checked the following settings:
Do you want to build packages to upload to the Windows Store?
==> No
Generate app bundle ==> Always

Sideload apps is a more secure option than Developer mode because you cannot install apps on the device without a trusted certificate.
Requirements
Here's what you'll need to have:
Devices need to be unlocked for sideloading (unlock policy enabled)
Certificate assigned to app
Signed app package
And here's what you'll need to do:
Turn on sideloading - you can push a policy with an MDM provider, or
you can use Settings.
Trust the app - import the security certificate to the local device.
Install the app - use PowerShell to install the app package
How do you sideload an app on desktop
You can sideload apps on managed or unmanaged devices.
To turn on sideloading for managed devices
Deploy an enterprise policy.
To turn on sideloading for unmanaged devices
Open Settings.
Click Update & Security > For developers.
On Use developer features, select Sideload apps.
To import the security certificate
Open the security certificate for the appx package, and select
Install Certificate.
On the Certificate Import Wizard, select Local Machine.
Import the certificate to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities
folder.
To install the app
From the folder with the appx package, run the PowerShell
Add-AppxPackage command to install the appx package.
Source: https://technet.microsoft.com/itpro/windows/deploy/sideload-apps-in-windows-10