Archiving Windows 8 Applications

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Introduction

Since Windows 8.1's End of Life, you are no longer able to generate APPX and license files directly from the Windows Store. Thus, in order to preserve the full application you need to archive the license .lic file as well with the standard .appx and .cer.

Archiving the .appx directly from Microsoft servers

To download the application packages directly from Microsoft servers you need the following:

• Microsoft Store
• Online link generator for Microsoft Store

1. Open the Microsoft Store, find an application you want to archive. I'm using Halo: Spartan Strike as an example here.

2. Then, open the charms bar and select the Share option. you must either be logged into Windows with a Microsoft account, or have an email account set up in the Mail app.

3. Now, go to Link generator for Microsoft Store, select CategoryID and Retail and copy the ID you got from the URL.

4. After that, you have now got a list of packages for that application.

Tested on: all platforms

Archiving the .appx via WSAppBak

To archive the application and make it installable on every PC running Windows 8/8.1/10/11 you need the following:

• WSAppBak

1. Open WSAppBack, it will ask you to enter the path of the folder where the app you want to archive is contained. An example could be:
   C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.Bing_1.5.1.259_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
   
2. Then, it will ask you to enter the path of the folder where you want to archive the packages. In this case, I have choosen C:\output as my preferred one.
   
3. Last, it will ask you if you want to create a password for the certificate, you can leave it blank if you don't want to.
   
4. After that, you have finally created a copy of your application without the license file. You can now install this copy on every Windows 8 computer with a developer license.
   

Tested on: Windows 8 x64, Windows 8.1 x64

Archiving the application license

To make sure your paid application will still work on Windows 8 you need the following:

• WSService tokens extractor
• wsll x64/x86

1. Open WSService tokens extrator, select the app whose license you want to archive and click on the View button. An example of app could be:
   Microsoft.XboxOneSmartGlass_8wekyb3d8bbwe (Full)
   
2. Once you have done that, click on the Save original button.
   
3. Then, it will ask you where you want to save the .lic file. In this case, I have chosen C:\ as my preferred location.
   
4. After that, you have finally created a copy of your application license. To install it on any PC, you need to use wsll with the following command:
   
   ⎗

   ✓

   1	wsll.exe License.lic

5. Finally, you have to install the license again with WSService tokens extractor.
   

You've now successfully saved the license file of that application and managed to install it on a different PC/Installation of Windows 8.

Tested on: Windows 8 x64