How do I add Windows Apps (also called “Windows Store”, “Universal” or “Metro” apps) to my menu?
QAP supports these apps known as: Windows Apps (under Windows 10), Universal Applications, Metro Apps (under Windows 8) or Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps. This new Windows application type doesn’t use the traditional executable (.exe) files anymore. These apps are pre-installed in Windows 8 and 10 or downloaded from Windows Store.
This family of applications has the advantage of being available in a very similar way under various Microsoft devices. But, technically, their architecture and behavior differs in many ways from regular applications. This is why a specific favorite type is required to configure and launch them.
Default “My Windows Apps”
The “My Windows Apps” submenu
The first time you run QAP with Windows 10, QAP creates automatically a new sub menu named My Widows Apps at the bottom of your main menu. This menu contains a sample of the most common Windows Apps normally installed with Windows 10. You can edit, move or remove this menu as for other submenus.
Adding a Windows App to your menu
Click the Add button and select the favorite type Windows Apps. In the Basic Settings tab, see the dropdown list of Windows Apps installed on your system. You can click the Refresh button to add the freshly installed Windows Apps to the list (to have the list refreshed each time QAP is launched, enable this options in Options, Launch Advanced Options).
Select a Windows App in the list. This list is built with Windows App “code names” as they are registered in Windows. Some of these names a unfriendly codes but, at this time, QAP could not retrieve more friendly or localized names from Windows (still doing research on this). When you select an app in the list, its name is loaded in the Short name for menu text box. Also, QAP could not currently retrieve the default icon for a Windows App. Fortunately, you can change the app’s name for a more user friendly name and select your preferred icon in the Menu Options tab.
If whenever you need to add an app not in the list, you can select the Custom Windows App identifier (Application User Model ID – AUMID) entry at the end of the list. However, you will have to fill the Application User Model ID (AUMID or Windows Apps identifiers) code for this app (for example “Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe!MicrosoftEdge” for Microsoft Edge).
Finally, when you will install Windows updates, it may happen that the Windows App ID for a given app changes. If whenever this happens, you will only have to select the Windows App again in the list and save your favorite.