Book Image

Modernizing Your Windows Applications with the Windows App SDK and WinUI

By : Matteo Pagani, Marc Plogas
5 (1)
Book Image

Modernizing Your Windows Applications with the Windows App SDK and WinUI

5 (1)
By: Matteo Pagani, Marc Plogas

Overview of this book

If you're a developer looking to improve and modernize your existing LOB applications to leverage modern Windows features without having to rewrite the entire application from scratch, this book is for you. You’ll learn how to modernize your existing Windows Forms, WPF, and UWP applications and enrich them with the latest Windows features. Starting with sample LOB applications that cover common scenarios, you'll learn the differences between various components and then focus on design features for improved visual aspects like accessibility and responsive layouts. The book shows you how to enhance your existing applications using Windows App SDK components and various Windows APIs, resulting in deeper integration with the operating system. You’ll be taking a closer look at WinML, which enables Windows applications to evaluate machine learning models offline and leverage the power of your machine, or notifications, to engage with your users in a more effective way. You’ll also learn how to make your application deployment-ready by distributing it using various platforms like the Microsoft Store or websites. By the end of this Windows book, you'll be able to create a migration plan for your existing Windows applications and put your knowledge to work by enhancing your application with new features and integrating them with the Windows ecosystem.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Basic Concepts
3
Section 2: Modernization Journey
9
Section 3: Integrating Your App with the Windows Ecosystem
14
Section 4: Distributing Your Application

Understanding the MSIX packaging technology

MSIX is a new packaging technology introduced by Microsoft with the goal to solve many of the challenges that the previous installation technologies (such as MSI or ClickOnce) have created over the years. Some of these challenges include the following:

  • The need for enterprises to repackage applications at every update when they have to make any customization to satisfy the company's requirements
  • The requirement of using third-party tools or Visual Studio customizations to create an installer as part of the build process
  • The need to use third-party services (or build your own custom one) if you want to provide automatic updates
  • The inability to completely uninstall an application often leaves orphan registry keys or files, which, over time, slow down the operating system

The key difference between MSIX and other technologies is that it's completely integrated into Windows. This means that many of the challenges...