How to run Windows Store Apps on Linux

Question

I am eager to run Windows Store apps (not regular Win32 applications) on my Kubuntu 18.10. Can I run it with Wine? If not, then how should I?

Solution 1

(this is a duplicate of my own answer from Is it possible to run Windows 10 UWP apps on Ubuntu?, since this question is basically the same)

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Running UWP apps is possible, at least with some apps. I've successfully run the Trello UWP app (which is only available from the Microsoft Store).

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First, you need to acquire the .appx file for the UWP app. One way to do this without Windows or the Microsoft Store is to use the this site: https://store.rg-adguard.net/

Paste the Microsoft Store URL of the app into the site. For example, the Trello app's URL is: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/trello/9nblggh4xxvw

This gives you links to all of the files available through the Microsoft Store. You only need the .appx file, which may be available as multiple versions (e.g. x86 and x64).

Chrome doesn't want to download the files simply by clicking the links. This made the site feel a bit sketchy at first. In Chrome's DevTools console, Chrome says that it's not downloading the file, because the Microsoft Store URL uses http://, and the site uses https://. But since the file is coming straight from microsoft.com, it feels safe to me.

Right-clicking the link, selecting "Save link as", and choosing "Keep" allows you to download the file despite Chrome's objections.

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Once you have the .appx file, you can extract it. It's just a regular zip file, so run something like unzip -d output-dir file.appx or atool -x file.appx.

The extracted files should have a directory called "app", which should have the executable and other files for the app.

For the Trello app, just running wine Trello.exe inside the "app" directory worked for me. But other applications might not work straight away, if something more complex happens during their installation.

Solution 2

Best and perhaps the only way to make this happen is to create a VM with a windows box to run the apps. Because of how Microsoft has the Apps packaged, they are fundamentally different and there currently is no way to port them over to another OS, even with Wine.

Handy Resources here.

Maybe in the future Wine will integrate a feature for UWP apps. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

Comments

[Admin]

This question has already been asked on this site, but regrettably received no answers. Similar question can also be found on Super User.

[Silas S. Brown]

Hi Suraj, I think the reason why people downvoted this is it's an answer to the wrong question. This particular question asked about Windows Store apps, i.e. apps that use the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) introduced in Windows 10, which is very different from the classic Windows API used by Win32 apps. WINE and its derivatives can run classic Win32 apps but they cannot run UWP apps.

[Silas S. Brown]

Alternatively you might be able to find an Android version of the UWP app, and run that in an Android emulator (or even in ARC Welder on Chrome, although this doesn't always work). Many UWP apps do have Android versions, and if you can find the .apk file you can usually install it on an emulator. That saves licensing Windows for a VM.