In the lifecycle of an application package, it comes a point when an update is required. Whether we want to fix minor bugs and vulnerabilities, or we come up with some improvements and big changes to our app, we must deliver it as an update.

In January 2020, Windows 7 end of life support comes in place. This means that users won’t receive any updates from Microsoft, and companies have to pay extra for the next three years if they want them.

In the past 12 months, we've worked hard on setting the foundation of the new packaging and deployment technology, MSIX. We also continued listening to your feedback, and that led us towards one of our biggest bug-fixing effort in years, along with some important architectural redesigns, all aimed at making your work easier.

Blender is a free and open source 3D creation suite which includes a variety of tools such as Modeling, Rendering, Animation, Video Editing and many types of Simulations. Its source file can be downloaded from here and it comes in MSI format.

All MSIX packages must be digitally signed, no exception. In order to digitally sign your MSIX package, you can use a self-signed certificate. However, you need to ensure that same certificate used to sign the MSIX package is imported into the Computer's Trusted Root Certification Authorities on the target device where you plan to deploy your MSIX package. Otherwise, your MSIX will fail to install.

Wise Installer was one of the most popular software tool used for creating application installers. It’s discontinued from 2013, but until then not many changes were added to it since the original launch. However, it’s still used to this day by many users in the world. Custom action offer the possibility to extend the logic of the installer by adding scripts, executables, dll’s and many more, so let’s have a look on how custom actions are added in Wise vs Advanced Installer.

In our days, many apps offer you a context menu. A context menu is a pop-up menu that appears after a user interaction, for example, in Windows, when you perform a right-click. However, there are two types of context menus:

MSIX uses the same PowerShell cmdlets available for AppX packages. Let’s go through some of them with a few examples

Before we begin, it is important we know that starting with SCCM version 1806, MSIX application is supported in System Center Configuration Manager. Integrating MSIX apps in previous versions, does not work.Also the current version of Windows 10 that supports MSIX is version 1809. It is announced that Microsoft will add support for MSIX also on other versions of Windows 10.

If you are attending Microsoft Build, in Seattle, don't forget to visit the Advanced Installer booth on the expo floor. We’ve got some great new tools to showcase from our latest releases.

The latest version of Advanced Installer brings you a new set of features and improvements across all editions.

Microsoft’s replacement for the ubiquitous MSI, MSIX, requires the use of code signing certificates to deploy the packages. This is part 1 of a two-part series on MSIX and Certificates. This one is aimed at developers and the second will be for IT Pros.

If we check the official Microsoft documentation about PackageName and appID, we can see that in theory, there aren’t so many differences between them.

Java is one of the most recognized frameworks, made popular by many things, the most important of all WORA (Write once, run anywhere). But, if you want to run any type of Java code on a machine, you obviously need to install the Java Runtime (JRE) first.

The Environment Table is used to create and set the values of environment variables.

Hover is a free application that allows you to run natively installed applications inside an MSIX/App-V container.

There are times when you need to install multiple applications at once, either EXEs or MSIs; we call this a suite installation. Wise Installer was one of the most popular software tool used for creating application installers. It was discontinued in November 2013 and offered a solution for such cases. In this article, we have a look at how you can achieve that in a simple and modern manner using Advanced Installer compared with the old ways of Wise Studio.

There are four main methods of deploying an MSIX application. Publishing in Microsoft Store and Sideloading are methods that target unmanaged devices while Deploying via SCCM and Deploying via Intune focuses more on an enterprise environment, targeting managed devices. The key difference between unmanaged and managed devices is the control of how they are configured and who can have access to the application.

Opposite to old Win32 apps, Modern Windows 10 apps come with full control of their access, just like modern mobile apps. You can control their access to certain APIs or resources like pictures, music, or hardware such as the camera or the microphone. Permissions must be requested within the package manifest.

Google Chrome is one of the most popular browsers on the market at the moment. For enterprise use and deployment, Google offers the Chrome browser as an MSI installer.