Enterprise Deployment Windows 8 store-style apps

Original: Enterprise Deployment Windows 8 store-style app

Introduction

We all knew before that we could publish the application to the Windows Store for users to download and use. If we are an enterprise developer, our app may fall into one of the following two categories:

1. Application content is a practical application that is only relevant to individuals in the company.

2. Hopefully as many users as possible can use our app, it's a good idea to list the app in the Windows store.

This blog post focuses on how the first type of application is deployed to the enterprise for analysis.

First, ready to apply

While deploying applications to client computers via the Windows Store is a very convenient way, for custom or LOB applications, IT administrators typically want to deploy applications directly to enterprise users ' PCs.

Before the application of the enterprise in-house, we need to verify the application from the following aspects:

1. Meet the basic requirements verified by the Windows App Certification Toolkit, which helps us discover any potential issues in the app before deploying the app to users. For information on how to use the certification tool, you can use the Windows App Certification Kit to test your app.

2. Comply with the relevant guidance rules applied in the enterprise's internal application (these rules are determined by the enterprise, Microsoft does not have any mandatory rules).

3. Sign the app. Here is a brief description of the application signature.

• To deploy the app package to users, the app must be signed by a certification authority trusted by the target computer. The Publisher name in the package manifest must match the Publisher name in the certificate used to sign the app.
• Alternatively, we can look at the Windows Dev Center for additional details about signing your app through Visual Studio.
• Windows can trust many certification authorities without any additional configuration. If the certificate is issued by a trusted authority, you do not need to deploy additional certificates to the target Windows 8 pc, and you do not need to manage these certificates. You can also use your company's internal certification authority to sign the app. If you select this option, the IT administrator must ensure that the CA certificate is installed in the Windows image of the target computer.
• Visual Studio provides an application-signed test certificate that we can use for internal testing. In addition, Microsoft recommends that we use these certificates for internal testing only, not for extensive deployment through the enterprise.

Second, prepare the computer

First we need to know that Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 Enterprise Edition are categorized as "Support for Enterprise Sideloading". This means your computer is ready to receive apps that are deployed outside of the Windows store.

If you want to make sure your computer is ready, verify the following:

1. The computer is joined to the domain.

2. Group Policy is set to "allow trusted apps to be installed."

If you deploy an app to Windows 8 Pro, Windows RT, or Windows 8 Enterprise, you can configure it for sideloading apps in the following ways:

1. Activate the product key for Enterprise sideloading on each PC.

2. Set the Group Policy to "allow trusted apps to be installed."

Note: Installed apps are signed by the certification authorities that these computers trust. (These certificates do not have to come from a trusted certification authority; they can only be trusted by the user's computer)

III. Deployment of applications

We can use a Windows image or deploy an app to a prepared computer at run time.

Deploying an app with an image makes the app available to all existing and future users who access the computer, and deploying the app at run time makes the app available only to the current user.

To deploy an app through a Windows image:

1. Make sure that Group Policy or registry keys allow settings for all trusted apps. You can do this using the Modify registry method:

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Appx\AllowAllTrustedApps = 1

2.Use the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) command-line tool. For example, to install a package to an offline image, open a command prompt and enter:

 DISM /Add-ProvisionedAppxPackage /PackagePath:C:\App1.appx /SkipLicense

When you deploy your app at run time, you can use Windows PowerShell to complete your deployment. Alternatively, we can do this by using any management tool that supports the implementation of PowerShell scripts or cmdlets.

For example, at the PowerShell command prompt, enter:add-appxpackage C:\ContosoApp\ExpenseApp.appx

Iv. Deployment Updates

Deploying apps is updated in the same way that you deploy apps at run time, but we need to install these updates for each user on the computer.

IT administrators can detect the appropriate version of the installer through the Get-appxpackage PowerShell cmdlet.

The IT administrator can use the command to force updates in the PowerShell command window: add-appxpackage\\fileserver\contosoapp\v1.1\expenseapp.appx

The application will be re-updated and deployed at this time.

V. Deployment on Windows RT Devices

For Windows RT devices, we can use the new management client. It provides a simpler user experience for enterprise machines and allows users to easily access applications provided by IT administrators through this management client.

For the management client.

Once a user clicks on an app, they can install it.

Due to the length of the reasons, I do not introduce the details here, you can refer to: Managing your Windows RT PC

Summarize

When we build an enterprise-class Windows 8 store-style application, you can choose how to make these applications. We can publish the application through the Windows store, or you can deploy the application directly.

For more information on the Windows 8 store-style application deployment article, refer to:

1. Publish the App (Windows) in the store;

2. Sign the package;

3.Deploying Metro style apps to businesses;

4.Managing "BYO" PCs in the Enterprise (including WOA);

Enterprise Deployment Windows 8 store-style apps