Deploy Windows Apps to Family and Friends without

Question

I wrote a App for my family/friends and now we would like deploy it on or PCs. Publishing it in the store is not an option and not everyone has an Widows Live account. Sideloading isn't an option, because we do not own a Enterprise edition.

I found only the three already described ways. Either by publishing it in the store, using the development tools or having the enterprise edition.

Is there a fourth way to deploy a Windows UWP App without using the Windows Store or the need to install a developer certificate? If not, is there a possibility that something similar will be possible in the future?

The Windows 10 Deployment Tool looks like the thing I'm looking for, but i seems to be for mobile phones, or am i wrong?

Answer 1

The future is now! The process is easier on Windows 10 and the linked questions aren't relevant to that version. On Windows 10 users can enable developer mode or side loading in system settings on the "Update & security" page, in the for developers section.

See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/dn706236.aspx

Answer 2

1. On the target device, open the test folder. For example, C:\Projects\MyApp\MyApp\AppPackages\MyApp_1.0.2.0_Test
2. Right-click on the Add-AppDevPackage.ps1 file, then choose Run with PowerShell and follow the prompts.
3. Click the Start button and then type the name of your app to launch it.

Answer 3

now with Windows 10 Anniversary update, you could just double click *.appxbundle file to install

Steps:

1. create your package, select no, when prompt "Do you want to build packages to upload to Windows Store?"

2. go to the package folder, double click *.cer, and install the certificate to Trusted Root Certification Authorities

3. double click *.appxbundle to install

Client OS Requirement: Win10 14393

UWP Target SDK: 14393

UWP Min SDK: 14393