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Hi,
I'm making a UWP app that will be preinstalled on some PCs (i.e. will be installed on the machine when the user starts using the PC for the first time).
The app can also be downloaded from the Microsoft store.
Is there a way to determine whether the app was initially launched from the preinstallation or from the Microsoft store.
I know we can create 2 separate versions and check based on that, but from what I tested, there is still an "Open" button available on the store page of the app (even if it's updatable), which launches the existing preinstalled version.
Is there any indication inside the app for the open action from the store page?
Thanks,
Gilad.
A Microsoft platform for building and publishing apps for Windows devices.
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This is helpful:
Thanks, but I don't understand how to use that for my purpose.
Answer accepted by question author
Hello @Gilad Noy ,
Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!
I searched for API documentation related to installation and launch, and there is currently no API for checking if app was launched from the Microsoft store.
Thank you.
@Junjie Zhu - MSFT Thanks!
Another direction I thought about - Is it possible to hide the "Open" button in the store page if the installed version is lower than a certain version?
Something like declaring a certain version (and below) as deprecated so that we'll encourage the user to update if she reaches the store page of the app.
Hi @Gilad Noy,
Are you trying to keep users updated to the latest version? In that case, you can implement it directly from the code side, you can refer to this document Download and install package updates from the Store.
We don't want to keep them updated (we generally do, but this is not the case here).
We want to know whether they use the MS store to reach the app or launch it from the installed app lists without opening the store page, as it may also be preinstalled.
Since there is no API to know the launch source (installed app list or MS store), I thought about a certain "hack".
If we can block the "Open" button from the app page when the preinstalled version is the current one on the PC, and the users clicks on update - they will have a different version, and when it launches we can tell that it was accessed from the MS store.
Block the "Open" button from the app page.
This question is more related to Windows built in App MS Store and it's out of the scope of UWP development. Just talking form UWP side, there is no public UWP API to block the "Open" button.
Did my answer help you? If yes, please kindly accept it.
@Junjie Zhu - MSFT Unfortunately it didn't solve our problem, but it did answer our questions on that matter. Thanks for the help! :)