Side Loading

  • Article

2/13/2013

This test verifies that side-loading is enabled on your Windows Embedded 8 Standard (Standard 8) device that has been upgraded with a volume license key. Side-loading enables you to install Line of Business (LOB) Windows 8 apps on your device.

Usage

At a command prompt with administrator rights, type the following to verify side-loading capability.

TestKit.exe /test sideloading

Prerequisites

Your device must meet the following requirements in order for this test to succeed:

  • A volume license key has been applied to the device.
  • User Account Control (UAC) is enabled.

What the test does

The test performs the following steps:

  1. Adds a certificate for a sample test Windows 8 app.

  2. Sets the registry value HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Appx\AllowAllTrustedApps to 1 (true).

    Important

    This policy is required to run side-loaded apps. The test deletes this registry value after the test is complete.

  3. Provisions a sample test Windows 8 app.

  4. Restarts the device.

  5. Attempts to launch the sample test app.

  6. Removes the provisioned sample test app.

  7. Removes the certificate for the sample test app.

  8. Deletes the registry value HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Appx\AllowAllTrustedApps.

  9. Restarts the device.

Troubleshooting

If the side-loading test does not succeed, some of the most common causes are:

  • The device has not had a volume license key applied.
  • Side-loading is not enabled in Group Policy.
  • User Account Control (UAC) is disabled.
  • Test is run from a custom shell.

If the test is interrupted while running, you can run the test again and let the test complete to clean up any changes made by the test.

See Also

Reference

Test Kit for Windows Embedded 8 Standard Enterprise Capabilities