Start Windows 8 app from code in C#

Question

So, I'm trying to make a universal speech control kind of an app (in windows forms). I'm wondering if it's possible to start a Windows 8 app from code. I'm guessing that System.Diagnostics.Process.Start wouldn't work, because when I've tried running a windows 8 app from the executable, it wouldn't start, saying it "needed to be started from a frame" (I think, I'm recalling from memory). Any ideas here?

Thanks!

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/iersoy/running-a-windows-store-application-from-windows-forms/ — sa_ddam213, Jun 22 '14 at 01:54
Ah, thank you. That serves my purposes perfectly. The only thing that bugs me (and I don't know if there's a way to "fix" this) is that there's no actual application/command to do this without little "cheats" like this. — CreeperInATardis, Jun 22 '14 at 01:58

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 22 '14 at 22:51

2

I found the answer to my own question, actually. There is a command called Start that actually does this. For example, I just did "Start MicrosoftMusic:" and that did the trick (yes the colon is there on purpose).

answered Jun 22 '14 at 22:51

CreeperInATardis

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Yup. It's nice, simple, and it looks like you can give it "parameters" after the colon, or something like that. – CreeperInATardis Jun 23 '14 at 02:02

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:25

I had the code to perform it using the development simulator but it won't help you. However I did some search and I found this : IApplicationActivationManager::ActivateApplication in C#?

This looked very familiar because it is quite the same API as my simulator code. I haven't tested it but you should definitely give it a try.

One last thing you might struggle with is this "AppUserModelId" thing. Going through the registry manually is not something very easy. It becomes easier with that kind of code :

RegistryKey packageKey = Registry.ClassesRoot.OpenSubKey(@"ActivatableClasses\Package");
appKey = packageKey.OpenSubKey(packageKey.GetSubKeyNames().First(x => x.StartsWith(appName)));
var serverNameKey = appKey.OpenSubKey(@"ActivatableClassId\App");
var serverName = (string)serverNameKey.GetValue("Server");
var serverKey = appKey.OpenSubKey("Server\\" + serverName);
var AppUserModelId = (string)serverKey.GetValue("AppUserModelId");

Ah, thanks for this answer. I forgot to post that I actually found another solution that works perfectly. — CreeperInATardis, Jun 22 '14 at 22:50

Start Windows 8 app from code in C#

2 Answers2