Sideloading WinUI applications with MSIX

In this section, we will create an MSIX package for a WinUI project and learn how to sideload it on Windows 10. When you sideload an application, you install it directly with the MSIX UI or PowerShell commands. This method of installation is important to understand, as it is frequently used by enterprises to distribute applications internally.

Note

You could also create a self-contained application package and use Xcopy deployment for distribution, but this method has some performance drawbacks, which we covered earlier in the chapter.

We are going to start by creating a package for sideloading.

Creating an MSIX package for sideloading

In this section, we will create a package for a WinUI project with Visual Studio. You can start by either opening an existing WinUI project or by creating a new, empty one. I have created a new project named ProjectTracker. Proceed as follows:

1. First, right-click the project in Solution Explorer...