You can enable automatic updates for side-loaded apps in Windows 10

Microsoft Store offers a high security level to users when it comes to curating and checking the apps that enter here. You can definitely lay your head more comfortably at night, knowing that you have access to such a secure source of apps.

Another significant positive aspect of Microsoft Store is the fact that the apps that you get from here are updated automatically without the constant hassle of checking and installing updates manually all the time.

Automatic updates will be available for side-loaded apps

There’s a new feature of Windows 10 Redstone 4 App installer that makes it possible to enable automatic updates for side-loaded apps as well. Microsoft’s Matteo Pagani made the announcement on the company’s official blog telling users that if they have already worked with UWP or Desktop Bridge, then they must surely be familiar with the App installer. This is a new tool that comes with Windows 10 and makes it much more comfortable handling the side loading of app packages.

You can make sure that a side loaded app will always be updated to the most recent version without even using the Store. All you have to do is publish a new .appinstaller file and a new package with a higher version number in the same web location or file share, and that’s all. Thanks to Visual Studio 2017 15.7, this can be done extremely easily.

Expanding the deployment opportunities with the App installer

The blog’s notes say that the upcoming RS4 update for Windwos will expand the deployment opportunities with the App installer by introducing the option to install a package from a remote source.

Additionally, Windows now supports .appinstaller files, which contain the definition of an app package that you want to install on your machine. This format is quite powerful since it allows you to specify: The main package / Optional packages, which are packages linked to the main one that can be installed together as a bundle / Dependencies, which are packages that are required by the main one to work properly

You can read the entire blog post and find out more details on handling auto updates for side-loaded apps.

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