Microsoft Launches Windows Dev Center Tips To Help Devs Roll Out Windows 10 Apps To The Store

Microsoft is trying to make it as easy as possible for developers to roll out as many apps as possible to the Store. Back in April, the tech giant announced it would be building Hyper-V containers and PowerShell Dev perks to eliminate some of the limitations developers are currently facing. In addition, the new Bing Maps V8 control preview improves the web mapping platform for developers, bringing more features and faster performance.

The latest aid Microsoft has offered to developers is Windows Dev Center Tips, a blog series aimed at giving devs more information about the app publishing process. The Dev Center received new features in the last months, and Microsoft wants to walk its developers through various publishing scenarios such as:

Publish or update a public app
Package flighting
Publishing hidden apps
Side-loading and enterprise distribution
Third party and legacy distribution options
Notes about confidentiality and purchasing

Currently, devs can submit apps with one or more packages. The selections they make regarding visibility, description, and price are valid for all their app’s packages. Also, each package in the app can target various OS versions.

Publish or update a public app

Package flighting

Publishing hidden apps

Side-loading and enterprise distribution

Third party and legacy distribution options

Notes about confidentiality and purchasing

Devs can publish an app in two different ways: make it available to every user or limit which customers can download it. The new publishing package also offers complementary features such as granular control to target specific app updates to specific customers. Before publishing an app, devs need to think what their purpose is as the option to limit access to the app completely or offer limited app access to certain customers is a powerful one.

Microsoft will update its Windows Dev Center Tip blog regularly in order to better assist developers in creating the best Windows 10 apps.

Speaking of apps, if you encounter issues when opening Windows 10 apps, check out our fix article to solve the problem.