I want to create a simple Windows app but I'd like to be able to distribute it to my wife's Windows computer which does not have any developer mode permissions. Given the starter templates in Visual Studio, it seems like it really wants me to build a UWP app, but can my wife just download a UWP app I email to her, or does Windows 11 enforce any kind of security policies on UWP apps that would force me to either publish to the store or set up codesigning?
#What Visual Studio template do I want to use to be able to distribute a Windows app outside of store
shrewd radish
This seems to imply UWP apps can be directly distributed...
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/package/packaging-uwp-apps#generate-an-app-package
Apps can be installed without being published in the Store by publishing them on your Website, using application management tools such as Microsoft Intune and Configuration Manager, etc. You can also directly install an MSIX package for testing on your local or remote machine.
Ahh,
For an MSIX package to be installed on an end user's machine, it must be signed with a cert that is trusted on the machine.
so it sounds like for this I would have to distribute a cert to my wife's computer?
And would setting this up as a non-uwp app circumvent the need to distribute a signing cert?
devout lily
I'm not a big fan of UWP
shrewd radish
(doesn't seem like anyone is)
devout lily
I think it's rather new and has its own little ecosystem
Like stuff on windows store is UWP iirc
Is there a reason you think she'd need developer mode?
For just a normal app?
Desktop application I think is the template?
Idunno I usually do a blank project.
shrewd radish
right, but the top 15 templates in VS is UWP
and the only directx templates are uwp
devout lily
Hahah
shrewd radish
but i think you're right, i should just do blank
devout lily
Yeah they do kind of try and force it.
I've just used the CPP templates not the C# ones.
shrewd radish
i'm trying to do C++
devout lily
Ohhh
shrewd radish
I actually didn't even consider C#
I just want to build something trivially to do camera capture
devout lily
I always forget directx is also in cpp
shrewd radish
I suppose there's no reason it can't be C#
that's funny, I forgot C# could do directx
devout lily
I'd go for C# if you're looking for ease of use.
shrewd radish
I'm guessing I'm older than you? 🙂
devout lily
I doubt that.
shrewd radish
yeah, I think you're right about using C#
devout lily
I'm 29 lol
shrewd radish
This was cutting edge windows app development tooling at the time (Borland Builder)
devout lily
Haha yes.
devout lily
Yeah
shrewd radish
lol
devout lily
The guy open sourced his game
shrewd radish
ahh
what game?
that actually sounds like some incredibly frustrating fun, getting a 90s game to compile
kind of like trying to clone dinosaurs from a fossilized mosquito
devout lily
You know I can remember the name exactly I've been playing so many old games... I'll have to think about it.
My 29 year old brain is deteriorating
shrewd radish
i'm guessing you tried building it in modern VS and got some crazy errors?
devout lily
Called astonia
shrewd radish
never heard of it, but this game looks cool
devout lily
I was actually working on getting it to compile under clang
shrewd radish
i see it's free to play on steam, i'm guessing you're not the only one who has borland builder installed
devout lily
It almost worked.
shrewd radish
i'm surprised that would be compiler specific
devout lily
You'd just get a ton of errors on modern computers.
shrewd radish
although, maybe it was written for 16-bit systems?
is it this, astonia 3? https://github.com/eddoww/astonia3
devout lily
Yeah astonia3