Launch apps from microsoft store on win10

KaviLin

I want to make a feature obtain all apps installed in pc and users can launch other apps from my apps.
Here is the problem I meet,

There're some applications already pre-load in win10 ( or install from Microsoft store,
for example: paint3D, weather..etc)
and they all installed in a folder that the user needs permission to access this folder:

"C:\Program Files\WindowsApps"

It means if I want to launch apps inside this folder, I must launch it through shell script just like:

"explorer.exe shell:appsFolder\Microsoft.BingWeather_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App"

It composed by "PackageFamilyName" ! "app ID"
but It is lots of work to get this two information from windows.

Is there have a more convenient way to launch this kind of app by QT?
thanks!

hskoglund

Hi, you can bypass finding the package and app ID by utilizing that MSStore apps also register themselves via a windows.protocol (a string that ends with :// like https:// etc.)
Here's an suggestion on how to enumerate them from the registry and then start them using the "://" suffix:

Create an empty, vanilla Widgets app, then change your main.cpp to look like this:

#include "mainwindow.h"
#include <QApplication>

#include "qsettings.h"
#include "qcombobox.h"
#include "qpushbutton.h"
#include "qprocess.h"
#include "QVBoxLayout"

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QApplication a(argc, argv);

    QSettings r("HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\Local Settings\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\AppModel\\PackageRepository\\Extensions\\windows.protocol",QSettings::NativeFormat);

    auto cb = new QComboBox;;
    cb->setEditable(false);
    cb->addItems(r.childGroups());
    auto pb = new QPushButton;
    QObject::connect(pb,&QPushButton::clicked,[cb] {  QProcess::startDetached("explorer " + cb->currentText() + "://"); });

    auto vb = new QVBoxLayout;
    vb->addWidget(cb);
    vb->addWidget(pb);
    auto wi= new QWidget;
    wi->setLayout(vb);
    wi->show();

    return a.exec();
}

To start for example Calculator, just scroll down to "calculator" in the combobox and press the button, voila :-)