Metro App not giving Unpin or Uninstall menu

Question

I have a metro UI app that I copied from one tablet to another. I built and deployed in Visual Studio and it runs from within Visual Studio. It does not appear in the Metro screen with a tile. It does appear in the list of apps from search but when I right click on it it does not give me a menu to uninstall or pin/unpin. I changed the package name and did a build/deploy. The program tile appeared and now I have two apps with the same name in the app search results. One I can manipulate (pin/unpin/run) the other I cannot. Is there some underlying data structure I can look at to see if this old app can be removed?

---

Peter Bowers

Answer 1

This thread was created in the Windows Developer Preview: General OS questions Forum; the Microsoft Moderation team has moved this thread to
the Tools for Metro Style Apps Forum.

They will be best able to address your issue in that forum.


Sincerely,

---

Marilyn

Answer 2

Hi Peter,

You can't just copy a metro-style application from one machine to another because it isn't registered with the system.  I.e. it's just a file.  This is why it shows up in the file search, but not in the metro start menu and why you don't have the uninstall and pin/unpin menu items.

To get the app installed such that it will shows up in the start menu and you can run it, you need to deploy it on that machine where you want it to run.  Visual Studio installs the developer license that's necessary to run the app in addition to registering the app with the system.

So, on your machine, you do have the one copy that's just a file and the other that's the deployed app.  If you don't care about the one that's just a file, you can delete it.

Sincerely,

Dan

Answer 3

I did a build and deploy from inside Visual Studio of the project and ran it in both debug and non-debug mode. I assumed that would satisfy all the requirements. (This was not just a copy of the executable, this was a copy of the entire project). Also, I am not doing a file search but an App search.

---

Peter Bowers

Answer 4

Okay thanks for the clarification.  This may be a problem where the app didn't get deployed correctly on the first build. There is an app packaging API that you could use to remove the app (these would be called from a Win32 or .NET app, not a metro-style app):

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh446624#Y269

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh446581 

Please let me know if this helps.

If you can reproduce this, we would like to get more details so we can analyze it.  Please submit feedback using the Windows Feedback Tool from the Connect Site associated with your Windows Developer Preview program If you’re an MSDN subscriber, the information on how to join the Connect program is included on the download page where you installed Windows Developer Preview.  There’s a link to the Connect site and an invitation code that you can click on to join using a Windows Live ID account. If you’re not an MSDN subscriber follow this limited use link to join the Connect program and then follow the steps here. 

Sincerely,

Dan

 

Answer 5

I will try this and also try to reproduce it. I will be at VSLive next week but will try to fit it in.

---

Peter Bowers