WinRT licensing

Question

Does someone know how the licensing of WinRT apps work?

I have requested a free developer license from Microsoft and it seems that this is associated with the temporarykey.pfx or appxmanifest file. The problem is this expires every 30 days. I can renew the license but the application I was working on gives me an error "The debugger was unable to find the registration for the target application".

What should I do to continue developing on the same app?

This is a problem for us because we also need to use source control so might have more than one developer busy with the same project. Is this possible in WinRT or is development of a windows store app bound to one license per app? Would buying a business license solve this issue and what are the options?

Scenario 1: Developer A and Developer B both have individual developer licences. Developer A develops a Windows Store App on his machine. Developer A copies the whole application folder to Developer B's machine. Developer B is unable top run the application. Error "The debugger was unable to find the registration for the target application" is thrown. Both machines is on the company domain. Both developers are administrators on their machines.

Scenario 2: I have developed a windows store app. Files on my computer got corrupted which forced me to delete my userprofile on my machine. After creating a new userprofile and requesting a new temp developer licence with my same credentials on the same machine the error "The debugger was unable to find the registration for the target application" is thrown when trying to open my app I was working on previously.

Machines do get re-installed so scenario two will happen even if the app is in source control. How do I get around this problem? Can you export your licence to a physical file?

Thanks

Answer 1

This is just not how it works. A Store app can only run on your machine when it has a valid certification key. This key promises the user that the app was verified by Microsoft to be free from malware and basic defects and meets the Windows Application Certification requirements. This helps the user trust the Store to get apps that are not going to mess with his machine or are just a waste of money and time.

There is a chicken-and-egg problem when you develop such an app, clearly your app is unlikely to meet these requirements when you first start out. So you can obtain a temporary key to allow you to debug and test your app on your dev machine. It is good for one month, if you need more time then you simply obtain another one. It is automatic when you open your solution in Visual Studio. Every developer in your team obtains his own, you do not check it in. Once your app is stable enough and you've checked it yourself with the WACK to meet the certification requirements then you submit it to the Store. Once it is approved, it will be signed with a permanent key and can be downloaded by anyone.