Is the Windows App Store required for a UWP application?

Question

If it is, how can I use it to develop something in-house? I don't want it on the store. It should never be seen outside of the Enterprise.

Edit: Is sideloading the only way?

Answer 1

I don't want it on the store. It should never be seen outside of the Enterprise.

Sideloading is not the only way for the employee in your enterprise to acquire your app.

You can also publish your app through Windows Store for business so that you can manage and distribute your package more conveniently.

Just change the distribution option from Retail distribution to Line-of-business (LOB) distribution in Dev Center.

Select the enterprise(s) which should be able to get the app. No one else will be able to access it.

You might refer to Distribute LOB apps to enterprises.

Please note that in order to get the LOB app, your organization must be located in a supported market for Windows Store for business.

But in some cases, if you don't want your apps to be submitted through Dev Center for some reason, you can deploy your apps to machines via sideloading.

For more details, please see Sideload LOB apps in Windows 10.

Answer 2

The easiest way to distribute it is through the store, because the store takes care of keeping your users up-to-date with the latest version and has other improvements like partial updates if only a small part of a large app changes.

This does however not mean your app has to be public, simply use the Store for Business and submit the app as a LoB publisher so the app is only seen in your company. More info at: Working with LOB apps and Distribute LOB apps to enterprises.

Sideloading is also an option, but not very handy if you have a large amount of users. Here's also a step-by-step guide to deploy sideloaded apps through Intune. Important to know:

Windows 10 PCs do not require a sideloading key to install line-of-business apps. However, the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Appx\AllowAllTrustedApps must have a value of to 1 to enable sideloading.

Answer 3

Side loading is not the only way to run your app in UWP, you can also create your own installer, in Visual Studio go to "Project/Store/Create App Packages..." and when you're asked if you want to upload the packages to the windows store simply pick "No".