Is it possible to force AppInstaller min version as dependency in msix package?

[APshenkin]

Brief description of your issue

I have msix package that has WebView2 as dependency

  <Dependencies>
    <TargetDeviceFamily Name="Windows.Desktop" MinVersion="10.0.17763.0" MaxVersionTested="10.0.22000.1" />
    <win32dependencies:ExternalDependency Name="Microsoft.WebView2" Publisher="CN=Microsoft Windows, O=Microsoft Corporation, L=Redmond, S=Washington, C=US" MinVersion="134.0.3124.72" Optional="false" />
  </Dependencies>

On fresh installed Windows 11 I have 1.21 version of AppInstaller

(Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller).Version 1.21.10120.0
winget -v 1.6.10121

When try to install msix package, I got this error

App Installer failed to connect to the winget source for external package dependencies. Please report at https://aka.ms/winget-cli

The workaround is to set Optional=true, but then in this case it will not install MinVersion specified.

Then after running update for AppInstaller (via winget or via Microsoft Store)

 winget update Microsoft.AppInstaller

It uses latest version

(Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller).Version – 1.25.340.0
winget -v v1.10.340

And msix installer with Optional="false" works and install required version.

It seems that there was some bug between 1.21.10120.0 and 1.25.340.0 versions, that breaks installation.
However there is lack of information shown during installation, so users can't figure out that they need to update AppInstaller. Windows updates also don't update AppInstaller. So the only option is that user should figure out by themselves that they need to upgrade AppInstaller or we can't force to install specific Webview version.

Following this – is there an option to specify dependency on concrete version of Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller in msix package? tried to add the following

<PackageDependency Name="Microsoft.AppInstaller"
                       MinVersion="1.25.340.0"
                       Publisher="CN=Microsoft Corporation, O=Microsoft Corporation, L=Redmond, S=Washington, C=US" />

But it then return App Installer failed to install package dependencies.

Steps to reproduce

1. Build msix package with mandatory dependency Microsoft.WebView2 dependency
2. Install fresh Windows 11
3. Try to install this msix package

Expected behavior

should be able to instal msix package with mandatory WebView2 dependency on fresh Windows 11 installation

Actual behavior

Failed to install msix package with mandatory WebView2 dependency on fresh Windows 11 installation

Environment

>winget --info
Windows Package Manager v1.6.10121
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Windows: Windows.Desktop v10.0.26100.3476
System Architecture: Arm64
Package: Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller v1.21.10120.0

after update
Windows Package Manager v1.10.340
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Windows: Windows.Desktop v10.0.26100.3476
System Architecture: Arm64
Package: Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller v1.25.339.0

[JohnMcPMS]

I tried this with v1.6.10121 on an x64 machine and did not experience the same issue. If you could provide the AILog.txt file at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\TempState, it might provide a better explanation of why the older package is failing.

As to declaring a dependency on a minimum version of the AppInstaller itself; that isn't possible currently. The only mechanism that could work would still require your repro to get further along than it is.

[APshenkin]

Hi @JohnMcPMS

Thank you for reply.

Here is AILog file that you requested

AILog.txt

[JohnMcPMS]

Sorry, I should have also said to get the WinGetCOM-*.log file with the similar timestamp from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\DiagOutputDir.

[APshenkin]

@JohnMcPMS sorry for long reply.

I checked the log file file in folder that you provided and the file with logs is empty. Maybe it's required to set some flags somewhere to start collecting logs?