MSIX Hero
Open-source MSIX manager
and a must-have tool for MSIX authors
Runs on Windows 10 and Windows 11
No ads and free for personal and commercial use.
Features and highlights
Manage MSIX packages
Install, uninstall, provision and move between volumes. List apps, dependencies, capabilities and Package Support Framework options.
MSIX signing and certificates
Create and import certificates, sign and re-sign packages. PFX, installed certificate or Device Guard - the choice is yours.
App installer, Winget, app attach
A single tool to open and export to different file formats. Automatic building of VHD files (app attach), YAML (winget) and .appinstaller.
MSIX updates
Analyze update impact, check for updates, apply forced updates of .appinstaller apps.
Volumes
Create, edit and remove MSIX volumes and change installation targets.
Troubleshooting
Run commands, see event viewer logs, resolve paths and dependencies and more.
Plus
- Open-source (GPLv3), source code available on GitHub. You can use it for both personal and commercial purposes.
- It has no ads and does exactly what is says it does.
- It’s made in Germany 🙂
What is MSIX?
MSIX is a modern Windows app package format, a successor of APPX and a "spiritual successor" to some other - now legacy - formats, including but not limited to MSI, App-V and ClickOnce.
Apps deployed as MSIX packages benefit from several out-of-the-box features and properties, including:
- Fast and reliable installation, clean uninstallation,
- Content delivery optimizations, ensuring faster downloads with minimum impact and network bandwidth usage,
- Access to various modern Windows APIS which are not available for classically deployed win32 apps,
- Extensibility and shimming thanks to Package Support Framework,
- Add-ons and modification packages,
- Easy switch to MSIX app attach,
- Distribution and monetization in Microsoft Store.
And best of all, the big part of the ecosystem is open-sourced and the core support for MSIX deployment is built-in in any computer running still supported version of Windows 10. Although the format is relatively young, there already exist several package authoring tools, both from Microsoft and ISVs, and the community is constantly growing.​
