Welcome to the Windows Apportal Blog!

My name is Mike Marchand. I work in the US Central Marketing Organization and am on a team responsible for creating Windows Apportals, a Windows 8.1 app that can integrate your entire Line of Business (LOB) stack into a single, modern, touch-based experience. The concept behind Apportals is simple – introduce the same nested folder structure common in a desktop OS to the modern mobile OS. The result is a UI experience that allows the user to drill from the Start screen (composed of Live Tiles) to another mini-Start screen (composed of Grid Tiles). And best of all, because an Apportal is built out of the OS, everything that runs on Windows runs in a Windows Apportal, including Desktop Windows 7 Applications; Modern Windows 8 Apps; and Web Applications.

Windows Apportals are a feature of Windows 8.1, you can build one on your own, or you can work with a Microsoft advisor or certified partner to create one for your organization. With the Windows Apportal blog, the idea is to showcase and share technical documentation including whitepapers, tips and tricks for those of you trying to build your own Windows Apportal. Please note this blog isn’t a technical support blog. If you are having specific technical issues or need help getting started, please refer to Get Started and submit a request for assistance.

Comments

• Anonymous
  December 09, 2014
  This is the future for marketers and sales executives to deliver information.  

• Anonymous
  February 03, 2015
  The Apportal Generator loads OK but the "Create an Apportal Prototype" tile is grayed out and "Downloading templates..." overlays it.  I have allowed it to run in this condition for hours without completion.  This is no indication of progress.  The "Your Collection..." tile is operative though I have no apportals to load.   Any suggestions?

• Anonymous
  March 20, 2015
  I too have issues getting it to run. So, what is happening with the Apportal Generator lately? It was an announcement that was light on details and haven't heard much at all since; except from MS sales reps asking about us doing apportal generator prototypes for/with them. I have read through the materials and downloaded the Apportal Generator Prototype but it hasn't really worked from the beginning. I can import example apportals but cannot create new ones. Is this really just more of a marketing thing to try and get people to start building their own Apportals? Would love to see a tool that we can actually use to reduce our learning curve, expenses and sales costs. Is this something that is going to really go anywherte or mostly just marketing fluff?

• Anonymous
  April 08, 2015
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 08, 2015
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 11, 2015
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 13, 2015
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 23, 2015
  I've been advised by the Windows Apportal Team to post a question here regarding where I can find the exercise files mentioned in the Guide to Building a Windows Apportal (PDF).   On page 158, it says "As part of this tutorial, we've included a number of images for you to use.  To add them to your 'Assets' folder, drag the images onto the folder in Solution Explorer." When I filled out the form, I was only given the PDF guide.  I've tried multiple times, and every time, it's just the PDF, no images for following along with the guide. Can you please advise where I can obtain these images from, so that I can follow along with the tutorial? Thanks

• Anonymous
  June 25, 2015
  Where do you download the Windows Apportal Prototype Generator? I cannot seem to find this anywhere. Thank you.

• Anonymous
  July 24, 2015
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  July 27, 2015
  chewyse, the Windows Apportal Prototype Generator can be downloaded at this URL.  Please let me know if you have any difficulties installing or questions about its use: www.microsoft.com/.../dmt.aspx

• Anonymous
  July 27, 2015
  Don, once you download the zip file, you must extract the files first before being able to use.  There are side-loading instructions included in the package as well.  Once you've extracted the zipped files, you should be able to walk through the side-loading of the Apportal Prototype Generator to your machine.  Let me know if you have any other questions!  

• Anonymous
  July 27, 2015
  Hi Mike, can I get your Microsoft Corp email address please? I have the same issue as a couple of others on here in that the industries are greyed out even after multiple uninstall/reinstalls Thanks Ben

• Anonymous
  July 28, 2015
  Sure, Ben.  Feel free to reach out to me at v-michit@microsoft.com

• Anonymous
  November 23, 2015
  We have observed the export to excel feature is not working as expected in windows Apportal version 3.3 in Windows 10. No Excel is being downloaded in the backend after hitting export to excel. Can you please look into the issue. Message - Export account list will happen in background & you can dismiss this pop-up using the close button. Please advise on how to fix this issue?  Is there a current work around for this?