Windows Desktop Application Program
You can get detailed telemetry data and analytics reports that let you see how your Windows desktop applications are doing through the new Windows Desktop Application Program.
There’s no charge to access this data—all you need to do is sign up and accept the Windows Desktop Application Program Agreement, then upload a signed file using the same certificate you used to sign your application binary files.
To join the Windows Desktop Application program (when available):
- If your company already has a Windows Dev Center account, joining the Windows Desktop Application program is easy. Just sign into your Dev Center account and navigate to the Programs page (either in Account settings or by selecting All in the left navigation menu). Under Windows Desktop Application Program, click Get Started to join the program. Tip If your company has a Dev Center account but you don’t have access, ask your administrator to add you as a user.
- If your company doesn’t have a Dev Center account, you can sign up for the Windows Desktop Application Program directly (once available). Once your account is created, you'll have the option to associate an Azure AD tenant with your account so that other people in your company can also sign in.
Adding your desktop applications
Once you've joined the program, you'll need to add your Windows desktop applications to your dashboard so that we can start showing you your analytics reports. You do this by signing a file with the same valid, non-expired, non-revoked code-signing certificates that you use to authenticate your desktop applications, then uploading that signed file to your dashboard. By doing so, we know that the desktop applications signed with the same certificate belong to your account. We do not use your certificate information for any other purpose. You can upload files signed with as many current certificates as you use to sign your applications.
To add one or more desktop applications
- From your dashboard, select Add desktop applications.
- On the next page, download the signable file by selecting Download the file, then save the file to your computer.
- Sign the file you just downloaded using the same code-signing certificate that you use to authenticate your desktop application(s). You can use signtool.exe (available as part of the Windows SDK) to sign this file.
- Upload the file you just signed by dragging it into the field (or click to browse your files).
- Select Submit to complete the process.
If you use more than one code-signing certificate, you can repeat the steps above for each of your certificates.
After you complete these steps, we'll identify which Windows desktop applications are signed with the same certificate that you used to sign our file. Within 48 hours, we'll begin showing you analytics reports so you can see how your applications are performing.
Managing your desktop application metadata
Because desktop applications can be distributed and repackaged in multiple ways, we look at use metadata on the individual binary files themselves rather than from the installation packages. We use this metadata to infer the logical groupings of binary files into applications. We use the file name, file version, product name and product version metadata. If files don't have accurate metadata, they may appear together under an Unknown application name, or the application name will default to the individual binary name. Keeping the metadata of your apps and files up to date helps make sure they are represented correctly in your dashboard.
To make sure your metadata stays up to date, we recommend the following:
- When you revise a file, make sure to update the application version and product version numbers.
- Use your certificate to sign every binary that you want to see in your analytics report, not only your setup binaries.
- Provide consistent product name and product version information for all files that belong in the same application. If some of your files are distributed with multiple applications, give them a unique name so you can see analytics for those files individually from the applications they were distributed with.
- Every time you make changes to your metadata, you may see a new entry for your application in your dashboard. If you make a change, new incoming telemetry data will reflect your changes, but your old telemetry data will still appear as an Unknown application.
Viewing your analytic data
Our telemetry data will show health information such as crashes for each application associated with your certificate. Your dashboard will show an overview of your applications along with key metrics. You can select any application to view more details.
You can filter the data in a number of ways, allowing you to:
- View a summary of all failure types, sorted by number of hits
- Drill down into a particular failure and download stack traces to debug the issue faster
- Compare a new release of your application to the previous releases
- View health data in aggregate or by region, allowing you to isolate issues that are specific to a region
- Compare performance of your desktop applications across Windows versions, or on a specific version, such as the latest Windows 10 release
FAQ
- Why don't I see any data for an application? We won't show data until we detect enough users in order to gather meaningful information. If you've just released your application, it may take some time to reach this minimum adoption threshold. Another reason why you might not see data is if you haven't signed a file with the certificate for a certain application. Make sure you upload files signed with every certificate that you use to sign your applications.
- Can I access this data through an API? Yes, the data will be made available through a public API when the program is available to all developers.
- What do I do with my applications with older certificates? You can't submit certificates that are expired or revoked. If you want to see telemetry for applications that have expired certificates, you should renew your expired certificate with the same key.
- Why do I see an application I don’t recognize? If the certificate you use to sign files in your application is also used by someone else in your company to sign another application, you will see telemetry for that application too. In the future, we'll provide an option to hide applications from your dashboard. If your company account is attached to an Azure AD tenant, you can request your admin to modify user permissions so that only specific applications are visible to you.
- How can I provide feedback on the experience or get support? From within your dashboard, use the Feedback link (under Account settings) to let us know what you think, or send mail to win32analytics@microsoft.com. If you need to contact support, you can do so here.