Package from the command line

If you don't develop your app in Visual Studio, you can use the MSIX command line tools to package and sign your applications.

Purpose

This section links to articles about manually packaging your app as an MSIX using command line tools.

Topic	Description
Generating package components	Create a package manifest and add Target-based unplated assets (optional)
Create an MSIX package or bundle with the MakeAppx.exe tool	MakeAppx.exe creates, encrypts, decrypts, and extracts files from app packages and bundles.
Create a certificate for package signing	Create and export a certificate for app package signing with PowerShell tools.
Sign an app package using SignTool	Use SignTool to manually sign an app package with a certificate.

Advanced topics

This section contains more advanced topics for componentizing a large and/or complex app for more efficient packaging and installation.

Important

If you intend to submit your app to the Store, you need to contact Windows developer support and get approval to use any of the advanced features in this section.

Topic	Description
Package creation with the packaging layout	The packaging layout is a single document that describes packaging structure of the app. It specifies the bundles of an app (primary and optional), the packages in the bundles, and the files in the packages.
Introduction to asset packages	Asset packages are a type of package that act as a centralized location for an application’s common files – effectively eliminating the necessity for duplicated files throughout its architecture packages.
Developing with asset packages and package folding	Learn how to efficiently organize your app with asset packages and package folding.
Flat bundle app packages	Describes how to create a flat bundle for your app’s package files.