How can we extract startup UWP applications?

Question

How can we extract startup UWP applications?

S#v#n&h#i-Durga 26

I am using C++ code base to develop a forensic tool. The requirement is to display all the startup applications. However UWP apps which are enabled to run at startup, are not found in RegEdit at "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" or any other paths which have startup applications info.

If I have to write a code to extract Startup applications like Cortana,Skype,Spotify etc (UWP apps) from registry or windows folders, how do I do it?
Is there any path where UWP startup applications are stored?

Note:

This is continuation question to :

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-start-win_general/startup-apllications-in-windows-10/0b895da7-fa49-4a4d-816f-0adb3445fc74?messageId=1c952cf4-85f4-4bc2-bb21-5d4a7f1c9035

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Anonymous

2021-06-15T06:21:48.04+00:00

If I understand you correctly, you are developing a win32 app using C++, not a UWP app, right? Then you want to list all the startup applications include UWP apps. Is that correct?
S#v#n&h#i-Durga 26 Reputation points

2021-06-15T06:34:01.663+00:00

Yes, its not UWP app. Its a C++,MFC based forensic tool. One of the feature is to display all the startup applications. I am able to display most of the Startup applications except UWP apps as I am not able to find them in registry that easily.
kausharbatcha .A 0 Reputation points

2026-08-03T12:48:42.6366667+00:00

Finding UWP apps in the registry is difficult. Is there an easier way to find which modern apps are enabled at startup?

Answer accepted by question author

Jeanine Zhang-MSFT 11,356 Microsoft External Staff

Hi,

I suggest you could try to use the Windows.Management.Deployment APIs.

1,Enumerate installed packages by PackageManager.FindPackagesForUserWithPackageType

2,Use GetPackageApplicationIds to get the IDs of apps in the specified package.

3,Use StartupTask.GetAsync to get a startup task by Id.

I suggest you could refer to the sample: Enumerate app packages

Best Regards,

Jeanine

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S#v#n&h#i-Durga 26 Reputation points

2021-06-15T13:40:56.72+00:00

Thank you for the answer @Jeanine Zhang-MSFT

1 additional answer

Anonymous

2021-06-15T06:21:48.04+00:00

If I understand you correctly, you are developing a win32 app using C++, not a UWP app, right? Then you want to list all the startup applications include UWP apps. Is that correct?
S#v#n&h#i-Durga 26 Reputation points

2021-06-15T06:34:01.663+00:00

Yes, its not UWP app. Its a C++,MFC based forensic tool. One of the feature is to display all the startup applications. I am able to display most of the Startup applications except UWP apps as I am not able to find them in registry that easily.
kausharbatcha .A 0 Reputation points

2026-08-03T12:48:42.6366667+00:00

Finding UWP apps in the registry is difficult. Is there an easier way to find which modern apps are enabled at startup?
S#v#n&h#i-Durga 26 Reputation points

2021-06-15T13:40:56.72+00:00

Thank you for the answer @Jeanine Zhang-MSFT

Answer 1

Castorix31 91,966

You can see this thread : How to use powershell to manage startup items of uwp app in windwos 10?
or
Startup Apllications in Windows 10

S#v#n&h#i-Durga 26 Reputation points

2021-06-15T07:43:11.207+00:00

Thank you @Castorix31 for the link.

From the thread, I got how to manage startup items of UWP apps.
So, If I have Skype, then its path is
HKCU\Software\Classes\LocalSettings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModel\SystemAppData\Microsoft.SkypeApp_kzf8qxf38zg5c\SkypeStartup\State=2(dword)

By considering that UWP apps will have state value as '2' when they are enabled as Startup, then if I want to find all such UWP apps, there are lot of Subkeys in the registry to browse through only to find 2 to 3 results.
Its a complicated and costly operation for my forensic tool (Displaying Startup applications is one small feature in this tool)
So just wanted to know if there is any path which stores UWP apps Startup information which is not so complicated and easy to retrieve.