The Desktop App Converter allows developers to retool their .NET and Win32 applications for the Universal Windows Platform (UWP). It allows to run desktop installers in an unattended (silent) mode to obtain an AppX package, which then can be sideloaded on a Windows 10 machine or uploaded to the Windows Store.
Version 1.0.6.0 now automatically takes benefit of any icons that come within app-installers. Developers don´t need to extract and/or add such visual assets to their UWP-apps, as they will be detected and added automatically.
In the previous update to version 1.0.4.0, Microsoft added developers tools for running the service anywhere from cmd or PowerShell, auto-signing support, improved Manifest schema validation and general compatibility with with the Windows 10 Anniversary update.
The app original arrived in the Windows Store back in September. Desktop App Converter was announced at Build 2016 earlier in the years.
Microsoft´s UWP app-porting strategy
Previously known as Project Centennial, the App Converter is just one of a number of Microsoft’s bridging tools surrounding Microsoft´s UWP-app strategy. With the Universal Windows Platform, the company makes it easy to port apps from various platforms by removing much of the coding difficulties.
The UWP app converter also has been added to Visual Studio 15. Developers can launch and debug the UWP app packages directly from within the software.
With the Windows Bridge for iOS, Microsoft also maintains an open-source tool that can be used for iOS to Windows UWP app-porting. The current release is 0.2 161130 from November 30, 2016 which can be downloaded via GitHub.
