CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershellnsiswindows-10sideloading
spikeynick
spikeynick

Reputation: 499

Enabling app sideloading using NSIS on Windows10

I have a Windows Universal App that needs to be sideloaded. I am using NSIS with a powershell script to install it. I would like to have the NSIS installer enable app sideloading in the Windows settings. I have already looked at the documentation from Microsoft about enabling app sideloading (https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/xaml/dn706236.aspx).

If I run the powershell command from the documentation to set the registry in a standalone powershell window it works fine and I can install the app. However, when I put the registry command inside the installer it doesn't work. I have tried using both Powershell and NSIS to set the registry. Using the WriteRegDWORD command from NSIS and the reg add command from Powershell both say that they succeeded. Reading back the values produces the correct value. If I try to set the registry using Set-ItemProperty in the Powershell script it complains that the path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock doesn't exist.

There doesn't seem to be any way to tell whether sideloading is enabled or not from Powershell. Even outside of the installer context checking the registry is not a valid solution because enabling sideloading via Windows Settings doesn't set the registry.

So my current solution is to try to install the app. If the install fails, check the error message and see if it's complaining about sideloading not being enabled. If that is the case then open up Windows Settings to the developer features page and pop up a message saying that sideloading needs to be enabled in order to continue. Then after Windows Settings is closed reattempt to install the app.

Is it possible to enable sideloading from an NSIS installer? Or is it possible to do a check to see if sideloading is enabled or not?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 769

Answers (1)

Anders
Anders

Reputation: 101569

64-bit versions of Windows have a 64-bit and a 32-bit "version" of the registry, this means that what you see in Regedit might not be the same as what a 32-bit application sees. Use the SetRegView instruction to change the view used by the installer.

Process Monitor is a useful tool to debug registry issues like this...

Upvotes: 3

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