If there's something we've mentioned over and over again about MSIX is that it requires digital signing. We have a diversity of resources regarding this topic, from why it is a good practice to include a timestamp when signing a package, to automating the whole digital signing process of MSIX Packages.

Announced in 2018, MSIX was presented by Microsoft as the universal package format. Although it may not be widely known, the MSIX technology retains the functionalities for translations and localizations of Universal Windows Platform or UWP Apps.

Many of us are aware of the importance of securing our applications and how digital signatures are a solid way to avoid security breaches. For those looking into MSIX, you must know that Microsoft enforces digital signature for all packages within this technology. There is no exception.

A while ago we released a free tool for APP-V called TweakAPPV at Advanced Installer. Our purpose with this tool was to take App-V 5.x editing from the command-line to a new level by offering full access to the package contents.

“Your package is not digitally signed”.. “The certificate is not installed on your machine”.. “A new package is already installed..”

We all know that MSIX is an evolving technology - but it is not a fix-all for all the situations we encounter when running Windows applications.

Did you package Notepad++ as an MSIX, and need to add extra plugins to it?

Microsoft Visual Studio is the most popular integrated development environment (IDE) among Windows developers. It supports a large variety of programming languages including C, C++, C#, F#, Visual Basic .Net, JavaScript, among others.

It has been almost a year since we started building MSI and MSIX packages for Advanced Installer. The first versions were purely for internal testing and evaluation of potential show stoppers (elevation requirements, virtual machine integrations, etc).

On December 2nd of 2020, MSIX Packaging Fundamentals book authors Tim Mangan, Bogdan Mitrache, and Kevin Kaminski answered a series of questions within the MSIX Packaging Fundamentals Q&A live webinar.

As we've emphasized before, we're big fans of MSIX technology here at Advanced Installer. It has brought more control to developers when it comes to their packages -- as it includes options for repackaging, rolling back updates and even downgrade scenarios.

As software packagers, we know the struggle that comes with new technologies. And there's no need to sugarcoat it -- is downright stressful.

In a previous article we had a look on how Environment Variables work with MSIX. We now know that in MSIX, Environment Variables are redefined as AppExecutionAlias.

Up until 2020, Windows Services were not supported in MSIX -- which represented a blocker for organizations looking to transition their applications (that used Windows Services) to MSIX technology.

In 2018, Microsoft delivered a breakthrough packaging technology to enable a flawless application packaging process, including enhanced features to help IT Pros and Developers carry out updates and customizations in a more reliable way.

Scripts have been traditionally used by ISVs to add Custom Actions to their applications and make changes to the environment. They have been present in MSI and App-V packaging formats for ages, while for MSIX, they were introduced and supported about a year after Microsoft announced the MSIX release.

A firewall is a network security system that can be found on any modern operating system. It's purpose is to act as a barrier against network-based intrusions, to monitor and control incoming and outgoing traffic following an organization's predetermined security rules.

Microsoft recently came out with an MSIX-related packaging format called the MSIX Bundle, which includes safer and more reliable deployments as well as auto-updates and improved widespread support - which makes our life easier as application packagers.

Managing an infrastructure doesn’t only require updating software, creating OS deployments, or applying GPOs (Group Policy Object).

MSIX packages are installed by default per-user, and the option to provision per-machine MSIX applications is possible through SCCM - which is not yet available in Task Sequences.