Visual Studio 2022 Xamarin Forms UWP Create App Package Error: Task 'SignAppxPackage' failed. The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect.

Question

I am trying to create an app package (for my Xamarin Forms UWP app) to upload to the windows store.

I am using Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 (ARM 64-bit) Version 17.8.3.

In Visual Studio, I right-click on the UWP project -> Publish -> Create App Packages -> Choose Microsoft Store -> check all boxes -> click Create. It starts building and then a few seconds later I get this error:

Task 'SignAppxPackage' failed. The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect.

In the Windows application event log, I see this error:

Activation context generation failed for "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\10.0.18362.0\arm64\signtool.exe.Manifest". Dependent Assembly Microsoft.Windows.Build.Appx.AppxSip.dll,version="0.0.0.0" could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.

Answer 1

I found this issue:

https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/SignAppxPackage-not-working-on-ARM-Visua/10222824

Fixed my problem by by adding this to my .csproj file:

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Windows.SDK.BuildTools" Version="10.0.19041.1" PrivateAssets="all" />
  </ItemGroup>