UWP App distribute with trusted certificate without submitting on store

Question

I want to create an installer for my UWP app that works directly without submitting it to store. For that I created a Microsoft partner account and paid the individual fee for the windows apps and created an app there. Then using visual studio associated the app with store and created a build using Microsoft store option in visual studio. Now if I click on the msix file it shows me that the certificate is not trusted (I got this certificate from Microsoft partner center didn’t created locally). I have read in the documentation (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/desktop/modernize/desktop-to-uwp-distribute)
it says that
If you plan to distribute your application onto devices that run Windows 10 S or Windows 11 S, your application has to be signed by the Microsoft Store so you'll have to go through the Store submission process before you can distribute your application onto those devices.

But I don’t want my app to be on store just want a trusted certificate that when anyone install my app using the msix file it wont show the error for untrusted certificate. Is there any way to do that

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

First of all, the store certificate that generated after you associated your app with the partner center is not the trusted certificate that you thought. You still need to install the certificate as trusted to sideload your app.

For your scenario, you might need to buy a trusted certificate by yourself and sign your package using SignTool.

Thank you.

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