Detecting Windows App SDK version at runtime

[FreddyDgh]

If I have a Windows App SDK 1.1 app, is there a reliable way to determine which version of the runtime is being used? Obviously, it will be 1.1.x release, but I'd like to know precisely if it is 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 or 1.1.3 etc. I can't seem to find an obvious way of doing this, and it would be very helpful for analytics/bug-tracking purposes.

[castorix]

You can see this similar question : Recommended way to check that the Windows App SDK is installed

[FreddyDgh]

@castorix I think that approach could work, but the code in that discussion uses global::Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK.Runtime.Packages.Framework.PackageFamilyName, which doesn't seem to exist in version 1.1. Has the functionality been moved somewhere else?

[FreddyDgh]

I have figured out the issues with the constants:

For C++, they are in WindowsAppSDK-VersionInfo.h, documented at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-app-sdk/api/win32/_bootstrap/

For C#, they are in WindowsAppSDK-VersionInfo.cs, documented at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/api-reference/cs-bootstrapper-apis/cs-bootstrapper-apis-constants. However, the docs outright lie and say that the constants are in the assembly Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.Bootstrap.Net.dll when, in fact, they are included in the output assembly when you use <WindowsPackageType>None</WindowsPackageType>. It appears that if you don't want the default bootstrapping behavior, your only real option for a workaround is to change the project file like so:

	<ItemGroup>
		<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK" Version="1.1.3" GeneratePathProperty="true" />
	</ItemGroup>

	<ItemGroup>
		<Compile Include="$(PkgMicrosoft_WindowsAppSDK)\include\WindowsAppSDK-VersionInfo.cs" />
	</ItemGroup>

@DrusTheAxe The C# workaround is pretty clunky and non-obvious. Is it possible to fix this? Seems strange that those constants are not included directly in the assembly in the first place; it seems like a much more logical place for them.

[DrusTheAxe]

If I have a Windows App SDK 1.1 app, is there a reliable way to determine which version of the runtime is being used?

Yes. Do you want the version of the MSIX packages? Or the version of the WinAppSDK release (1.1.3, etc)?

For the former, walk the current process' package graph looking for the 1st match for the framework package's family name, then the package's version field has the answer.

For the latter do same, but then pull out the major version's bottom 3 digits for the patch level e.g. WinAppSDK release 1.1.3 has MSIX packages with version 1003.x.y.z. You already know the release's major.minor version you're built with (the '1.1' in '1.1.3') so the MSIX package version.major % 1000 gets you the patch level (the '3' in '1.1.3').

WindowsAppRuntime_IsSelfContained() does this. It's C++ (not C#) but implements this algorithm.

the docs outright lie and say that the constants are in the assembly Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.Bootstrap.Net.dll when, in fact, they are included in the output assembly when you use None.

Hmmm. The phrasing may be confusing. The constants via Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.Bootstrap.Net.dll are compile-time values you're built with embedded into the caller, as I understand it. This is the moral equivalent of WindowsAppSDK-VersionInfo.h, or at least meant to be. Sounds like this wasn't clearly conveyed?

I'm working on a runtime API to complement this build-time API, equivalent-ish to what's exposed by WindowsAppSDK-VersionInfo.* but functions instead of constants. Thus a runtime lookup retrieving values from the runtime binaries currently in use, not what you built with. I hope to have something concrete to share shortly.

[DrusTheAxe]

Are you an unpackaged app? If so and you're using WinAppSDK/SelfContained why would you call GetCurrentPackageInfo?

[Balkoth]

To get version info about the WinAppSDK in use as suggested above.

[DrusTheAxe]

If you're using WinAppSDK/SelfContained then the version you built with is exactly what you're using.

The new VersionInfo API doesn't probe the PackageGraph looking for the runtime so it works for WinAppSDK/SelfContained as well as WinAppSDK/MSIX (aka framework-dependent).

This is going into main shortly for 1.2

[FreddyDgh]

@DrusTheAxe Looks like the VersionInfo API didn't make the cut for 1.2 stable? Do you know if we can expect it in a 1.2 servicing release, or will it not be stable until 1.3?

[fabianoriccardi]

This discussion is pretty old and marked as solved but I don't think it is. Here there are the specs about nice APIs to retrieve versions that are not yet implemented in v1.6

Moreover, it seems that part of this APIs are already available in win32/c++... docs.

I could be wrong, and these APIs are already available. In case, please let me know which is the one-liner (or a kind of) to retrieve the Windows App SDK version in C#.