Application (Windows 10)

Article
12/16/2022

Represents an app that comprises part of or all of the functionality delivered in the package.

Element hierarchy

<Application>

Syntax

<Application
  EntryPoint? = 'See the Attributes table for more info.'
  Executable?
  uap10:HostId?
  Id
  uap10:Parameters?
  ResourceGroup?
  uap10:RuntimeBehavior?
  StartPage?
  desktop4:Subsystem?
  uap10:Subsystem?
  desktop4:SupportsMultipleInstances?
  uap10:SupportsMultipleInstances?
  uap10:TrustLevel?>

  <!-- Child elements -->
  uap:ApplicationContentUriRules?
  Extensions?
  uap7:Properties
  uap:VisualElements

</Application>

Key

? optional (zero or one)
& interleave connector (may occur in any order)

Attributes and elements

Attributes

Attribute	Description	Data type	Required
EntryPoint	The activatable class ID (for example, "Office.Winword.Class"), or "windows.fullTrustApplication", or "windows.partialTrustApplication". If you specify EntryPoint, then you must also specify the Executable attribute. If you specify EntryPoint, then you must not specify the StartPage attribute.	A string between 1 and 256 characters in length, representing the task handling the extension. This is normally the fully namespace-qualified name of a Windows Runtime type; but it can be one of the special values "windows.fullTrustApplication" or "windows.partialTrustApplication". If EntryPoint is not specified, the EntryPoint defined for the app is used instead.	No
Executable	The default launch executable for the app. The specified file must be present in the package. If you specify Executable, then you must also specify the EntryPoint attribute. If you specify Executable, then you must not specify the StartPage attribute.	A string between 1 and 256 characters in length that must end with `.exe` and can't contain these characters: `<`, `>`, `:`, `"`, `\|`, `?`, or `*`.	No
uap10:HostId	The app ID of the host app for the current app. This attribute is used for hosted apps.	An alphanumeric string between 1 and 255 characters in length. Must begin with a letter.	No
Id	The unique identifier of the application within the package. This value is sometimes referred to as the package-relative app identifier (PRAID). The ID is unique within the package but not globally. There may be another package on the system that uses the same ID. The same ID cannot be used more than once in the same package. When using a Visual Studio template, the default value of this attribute is App. Developers should manually change this in the manifest. The app's identifier should not be changed after the app has been published to the Microsoft Store; doing so will disrupt the tile's position on the Start screen.	An ASCII string between 1 and 64 characters in length. This string contains alpha-numeric fields separated by periods. Each field must begin with an ASCII alphabetic character. You cannot use these as field values: CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and LPT9.	Yes
uap10:Parameters	Contains command line parameters to pass to the app. Only supported for desktop apps that have package identity (see Deployment overview).	A string between 1 and 32767 characters in length with a non-whitespace character at its beginning and end.	No
ResourceGroup	A tag used to group extension activations together for resource management purposes (for example, CPU and memory). See the Remarks section in Application@ResourceGroup.	An alphanumeric string between 1 and 255 characters in length. Must begin with a letter.	No
uap10:RuntimeBehavior	Specifies the run time behavior of the app. "packagedClassicApp"—a WinUI 3 app, or a Desktop Bridge app (Centennial). "win32App"—any other kind of Win32 app, including an app packaged with external location. Needs the "Unvirtualized Resources" restricted capability (see App capability declarations). "windowsApp"—a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app. Always goes with a TrustLevel of "appContainer". All share common properties (some declared in `appxmanifest.xml`), and run as a process with package identity and application identity. You can think of them as being in two groups. One group is UWP apps ("windowsApp"); the other is Windows `.exe`s with main or WinMain ("packagedClassicApp" or "win32App"). That second group is also known as desktop apps.	A string with one of the following values: "packagedClassicApp", "win32App", or "windowsApp".	No
StartPage	The web page that handles the extensibility point.	A string with a value between 1 and 256 characters in length that cannot contain these characters: `<`, `>`, `:`, `"`, `\|`, `?`, or `*`. Any valid URI or IRI (the non-ASCII version of a URI).	No
desktop4:Subsystem	Indicates whether the app is a standard UWP app or a UWP console app.	A string that can be any of the following values: console or windows.	No
uap10:Subsystem	Indicates whether the app is a standard UWP app or a UWP console app.	A string that can be any of the following values: console or windows.	No
desktop4:SupportsMultipleInstances	Indicates support of multiple, separate instances of UWP apps. For more information, see the remarks section.	A boolean value.	No
uap10:SupportsMultipleInstances	Indicates support of multiple, separate instances of UWP apps. For more information, see the remarks section.	A boolean value.	No
uap10:TrustLevel	Specifies the trust level of the app "mediumIL"—the app is full trust; its process runs with an integrity level of medium (see Mandatory Integrity Control). Needs the "Full Trust Permission Level" restricted capability (see App capability declarations). "appContainer"—the app runs in a lightweight app container; its process runs with an integrity level of low.	A string with one of the following values: "mediumIL" or "appContainer".	No

Child elements

Child element	Description
uap:ApplicationContentUriRules	Specifies which pages in the web context have access to the system's geolocation devices (if the app has permission to access this capability) and access to the clipboard.
Extensions (type: CT_ApplicationExtensions)	Defines one or more extensibility points for the app.
uap7:Properties	Specifies properties of the app.
uap:VisualElements	Describes the visual aspects of the app: its default tile, logo images, text and background colors, initial screen orientation, splash screen, and lock screen tile appearance.

Parent elements

Parent element	Description
Applications	Represents one or more apps that comprise the package.

Remarks

The Application element contains attributes that are common to the extensibility points that pertain to the app. This information is used by other extensibility points to get information about the app. Also, Application attributes are used in the start and management of an instance of the app.

You can set uap10:TrustLevel="appContainer" in combination with uap10:RuntimeBehavior="packagedClassicApp".

The StartPage attribute applies only to JavaScript apps. If StartPage isn't specified, then both the Executable and EntryPoint attributes must be specified; and that applies only to C#, C++, or VB apps.

uap10 was introduced in Windows 10, version 2004 (10.0; Build 19041)

The uap10 namespace (for uap10:RuntimeBehavior and uap10:TrustLevel) was introduced in Windows 10, version 2004 (10.0; Build 19041). So if your package installs on systems older than that, then you need to specify the EntryPoint attribute, otherwise the activation information will be incomplete, and the install will fail.

But if your package has <TargetDeviceFamily MinVersion="10.0.19041.0">, or higher, then it installs only on systems that support the uap10 namespace. In that case, you can omit EntryPoint, and instead use the uap10:RuntimeBehavior and uap10:TrustLevel attributes.

So these combinations are valid, and they all produce identical results:

EntryPoint="windows.fullTrustApplication".
uap10:RuntimeBehavior="packagedClassicApp" uap10:TrustLevel="mediumIL".
uap10:RuntimeBehavior="packagedClassicApp" uap10:TrustLevel="mediumIL" EntryPoint="windows.fullTrustApplication".

Similarly, if uap10:TrustLevel="appContainer", then on those older systems EntryPoint must be set to "windows.partialTrustApplication`.

Important notes about multi-instancing apps

If an app declares SupportsMultipleInstances within the Application element, then all foreground extensions will also be multi-instanced.
If the app declares SupportsMultipleInstances within the Application element, then it does not need to be declared at the Extensions level (for example, in a BackgroundTasks or AppService element).
The app should only declare SupportsMultipleInstances on background tasks, background audio, or app services.
Console apps will always be multi-instanced and must explicitly declare SupportsMultipleInstances.
Apps can use the ResourceGroup declaration in the manifest to group multiple background tasks into the same host. This conflicts with multi-instancing, where each activation goes into a separate host. Therefore, an app cannot declare both SupportsMultipleInstances and ResourceGroup in the manifest.

For more information about using the SupportsMultipleInstances attribute to support multiple, separate instances of UWP apps, see Create a multi-instance Universal Windows App.

Requirements

	Value
Namespace	`http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10`
desktop4 attributes	`http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/desktop/windows10/4`
uap10 attributes	`http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10/10`