Experimental single project MSIX packaging for arbitrary .NET projects

[daniel-lerch]

Set up your desktop application for MSIX packaging in Visual Studio states that single project MSIX packaging is only supported for WinUI 3 projects (which is factually wrong) and all other projects should use a Windows Application Packaging Project.

Single project MSIX packaging has been supported for all apps referencing Windows App SDK for quite some time regardless of which UI framework they used. However, that approach had the drawback of additional dependencies which increased MSIX package sizes.

With Microsoft.Windows.SDK.BuildTools.MSIX new packaging tools are available that are decoupled from Windows App SDK and support arbitrary project types. This support is not official yet and there are still some bugs: microsoft/WindowsAppSDK#4932

Despite the limitations I consider the new package a viable alternative to Windows Application Packaging Project or custom scripts calling MakeAppx.exe manually. It should be included in these docs with instructions how to set it up.

Documentation should include:

• Instructions how to enable single project MSIX packaging for existing projects
• Known limitations (PublishSingleFile, PublishReadyToRun)
• Instructions how to create an .appbundle with multiple platforms and an .appxupload file
• Handling of localization resources (see MSIX packaging removes satellite assemblies required for localization microsoft/WindowsAppSDK#5869)