create installer for windows application online

The first 3 ones can be implemented without any code change, while the 4th one is dedicated to developers. Programmatically check for updates using a dedicated API.Automatically notify the presence of an update.In this post we're going to see 4 new App Installer features that were highly requested and that have been implemented in 1809 and the upcoming 19H1 update:

Thanks to this protocol the user won't have to download any files, but the installation experience will be automatically triggered: appinstaller file using the appinstaller protocol, which is natively supported by Windows: The Get the app button simply includes a link to the. The output will include also a HTML page, which enables your users to start the installation process:

In this case Visual Studio will generate, other than the AppX / MSIX package, also the relevant App Installer file, ready to be deployed on your web server or local share. When you trigger the process to create a MSIX / AppX package (right click on the UWP / Windows Application Packaging Project and choose Store -> Create App Packages), you can opt-in to enable automatic updates. However, the simplest way to generate it is through Visual Studio. The App Installer file is simply a XML file, so it can be manually created with any text editor. The HoursBetweenUpdateChecks attribute can be set to 0, in case you want to check for updates every time the app is launched, or to a fixed value, in case you want to enable periodic checks.

UpdateSettings, which configures the auto update feature.

MainBundle, which specifies the Uri and the info about the MSIX package to deploy.

This is an example of an App Installer file: appinstaller extension, which is deployed on the server together with the AppX / MSIX package you want to distribute. In this case, the update will be automatically downloaded and installed if the application is not running otherwise, it will be installed as soon as the application is closed.Įverything is controlled by a XML file, with.

At a specific frequency (for example, every 6 hours).

In this case, the update will be automatically downloaded and installed when the application is closed. Updates checks can be configured in two ways: You have also the opportunity to enable automatic updates, exactly like the Store does: every time you deploy an updated version of the package in the same location, Windows will take care of automatically updating the application. Thanks to App Installer, you're able to deploy a package (with its optional dependencies) on a web site or an Intranet share and let your users to download from it, instead of using the Microsoft Store or a similar infrastructure. A while ago we have explored a feature added in Windcalled App Installer, which allows to create powerful deployment experiences with AppX / MSIX packages.

Create installer for windows application online