How to deploy Store apps on your Phone and PC

On this short article, I am going to guide you on how to sideload apps (*.appx or *.appxbundle files) on Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 PC.

Enable developer mode

For security sake, by default, you can only install apps through Windows Store. Hence, you can't sideload apps packages you find on the internet on the go, for example.

However, there are people who need privileges to sideload apps manually, like developers, organizations, and so on.

With Windows 10 is very easy to unlock such privileges, and there's no need to download SDKs, register a Microsoft account on some program to unlock your device... You can simply go to Settings > Update & Security > For developers.

There are two options that in theory could serve your purpose.

• Sideload apps: Sideloading is installing and then running or testing an app that has not been certified by the Windows Store. For example, an app that is internal to your company only.
• Developer mode: Developer mode lets you sideload apps, and also run apps from Visual Studio in debug mode.

Source: Microsoft Docs

In conclusion, if your aim is to purely sideload packages then select Sideload apps. Note that this option allows deploying unsigned/uncertified packages. If you are planning to develop apps for Universal Windows Platform, select Developer mode.

That's it, you are ready to deploy packages. But how?

Manually sideload apps

After following the steps from the previous section, you are allowed to manually install any package. And it couldn't be easier.

Instructions for Windows 10 (Desktop)

1-click

You just double-click the *.appx or *.appxbundle file and you should see a dialog like below. Then, all you have to do is click Install. The App Installer shows progress and also errors, which is useful. 

Powershell

The procedure above doesn't work on all Windows 10 versions, as far as I know. The native support for packages is present on Creators Update (1703), and I think it was first introduced with Anniversary Update (1607).

If for some reason you are running older versions, PowerShell, which comes pre-installed with Windows 10, is an easy alternative. The command you are looking for is Add-AppxPackage which you can learn about and see optional parameters on Microsoft TechNet. 

Instructions for Phones

There are at least two official methods to sideload apps on your Windows 10 Mobile device.

1-click

This is the easiest way. Just like on PCs, you tap the file, that can be in internal storage or sd card, and then press Install when you get a confirmation dialog. Then you wait...

The big downside here is that there's no UI for installation progress. So, you need to occasionally check the App List. And if something went wrong... you won't know! Moreover, sideloading big packages can take a lot of time, and again, with the lack of UI, you might conclude there's no action going on.

Tip: If you opt for this method and the package is really big (like > 100MB) try to move the package to internal storage which has faster read speeds.

Device Portal (recommended)

Starting in Windows 10, Version 1511, additional developer features are available for the mobile device family. These features are available only when Developer mode is enabled on the device. The Device Portal is a web server on your device that you can connect to from a web browser on your PC.

There are many useful features on Device Portal, but that's not the point of this guide. You can see all the features at Microsoft Docs.

Let's setup your mobile device.

First, head to Settings > Update & Security > For Developers. Remember that you must have Developer mode enabled.

Then, toggle on Device discovery and Device Portal.

Next, let's connect to Device Portal. Note that there's a way to open Device Portal on your own phone, but for the purpose of this tutorial I don't see why you would want it. I am assuming you are using your PC to remotely deploy the package on your phone.

• Via USB: You can plug in the phone to your PC using a USB cable (that supports data). To get in Portal Device, open your favorite browser and enter the following address http://127.0.0.1:10080
• Via Network: Make sure your phone and PC are connected to the same local network. On the For Developers section, where you enabled Device Portal on your phone, you can see an address, to be more precise, your phone's IP address. Just type that address on your browser. 

You should see a security warning on your browser. That's perfectly normal. Your browser should have an option to ignore the warning and proceed the navigation.

If you never paired your phone and PC, you will be asked for a security code. On your phone tap Pair to generate the code. Then insert the code (case sensitive) on the PC browser. You can also check Remember my computer, but that's optional. 

Now have access to your phone's data. 

On Apps Manager tab, which is the first page loaded, you can start deploying apps. Not only you can pick the main package, you can also add the dependencies. 

The first setup takes some time, but for future usage, I think it's a very convenient tool.

Conclusion

There other ways to deploy packages on your Phone and PC, whenever they are official methods or third-party tools, but I selected the ones supported by Microsoft and that for me, are the easiest ways.

On PC's, I don't see why would you avoid the App Installer. It's native, no setup required, and with two clicks magic happens. For the dependencies, which are also *.appx packages, the same method applies. As a final note, I would like to mention that Device Portal also exists for your PC, but I don't see benefits for local package deployments.

As for your phone, you have the easy way through File Explorer, but the lack of UI and interaction is a big problem. I had so many headaches with it. Fortunately, there's Device Portal. It takes some time to accomplish the first pairing, but afterwards, it's pretty simple.