Get localized friendly names for all winrt/metro apps installed from WPF application

Question

My WPF application needs to list the localized names of all Metro/WinRT applications installed for the user. I created a repo to store a working sample for the code presented: https://github.com/luisrigoni/metro-apps-list 1) Using `PackageManager.FindPackagesForUser()` method ``` var userSecurityId = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().User.Value; var packages = packageManager.FindPackagesForUser(userSecurityId); foreach (var package in packages) Debug.WriteLine(package.Id.Name); } // output: // Microsoft.BingFinance // Microsoft.BingMaps // Microsoft.BingSports // Microsoft.BingTravel // Microsoft.BingWeather // Microsoft.Bing // Microsoft.Camera // microsoft.microsoftskydrive // microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps // microsoft.windowsphotos // Microsoft.XboxLIVEGames // Microsoft.ZuneMusic // Microsoft.ZuneVideo ``` These outputs don't seems too friendly to show to the user... 2) Reading the `AppxManifest.xml` of each of these apps ``` var userSecurityId = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().User…

Accepted Answer

Using SHLoadIndirectString, you should be able to construct a fully-qualified reference for Package name and resource ID of the form @{PackageFullName?resource-id}

Documented here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb759919(v=vs.85).aspx

You'll have to transform the manifest string into the proper form, though. It should be: ms-resource://PackageName/Resources/Id

PackageName is the name rather than the full name. Resources isn't strictly required but it's the default and it's usually there. I'd try to look up the resource without inserting resources and then try again if that fails.

For example, the camera app has "ms-resource:manifestDisplayName" in the manifest, so first you should try(*): @{Microsoft.Camera_6.2.8376.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe? ms-resource://Microsoft.Camera/manifestAppDescription}

When that fails, insert "resources" and try: @{Microsoft.Camera_6.2.8376.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe? ms-resource://Microsoft.Camera/resources/manifestAppDescription}

That should work. You'll want to try both forms because blindly inserting "resources" will break apps like skydrive, communications and photos which insert the first part of the path directly.

Still a bit of a pain, but better than dumping and parsing gigantic XML files.

(*) "Microsoft.Camera_6.2.8376.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe" is taken from an example - you'll obviously want the FullName of the one that's actually present on your system.

Get localized friendly names for all winrt/metro apps installed from WPF application

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