call an executable that is installed from the microsoft store?

[LeandroA]

Hello, is it possible to call an executable that is installed from the microsoft store? For example WhatsApp.exe, I did not find any way to do it (at least without having to change some permission)

[Elroy]

I haven't done it but I'd start trying by creating a shortcut to the app, and then look at the shortcut and put everything in it into a Shell command, surrounding the argument with quotes.

[dilettante]

Where did people get the notion to say "call" when they mean "run" instead? Is this textspeak or an artifact of Google Translate?

[Zvoni]

Where did people get the notion to say "call" when they mean "run" instead? Is this textspeak or an artifact of Google Translate?

Never mind, that since we're here in the VB6-section it pretty much has to be "run", since there are also 64-Bit-Apps in the Store, and you have to jump through a lot of hoops to "call" such from vb6

[Elroy]

Where did people get the notion to say "call" when they mean "run" instead? Is this textspeak or an artifact of Google Translate?

Personally, I think the best term would be "shell" or "shell to". I thought that "jump" might be an appropriate term since there's no "return", but our code keeps running as well, so maybe "spawn", as in spawn another thread or another process?

And, we must keep in mind that we're interacting with the OS because we're not going to someplace already in memory ... we're loading more code from disk, which is precisely what OSs were initially designed to do. DOS = disk operating system. Yeah, they've become complete GUIs in the decades since, but their core function is interaction between executing code and our disk system.

[LeandroA]

Thanks for your answers, I give up, I did many tests and none were successful, for now I'm going to leave this aside, thanks for your time.

[fafalone]

ShellExecute "open" "ms-windows-store:PDP?PFN=" & PackageFamilyName

[LeandroA]

ShellExecute "open" "ms-windows-store:PDP?PFN=" & PackageFamilyName

ShellExecute Me.hwnd, "open", "ms-windows-store:PDP?PFN=" & "5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_cv1g1gvanyjgm", "", "", 0

This opens the Microsoft store with said application but does not run the application


I also tried something like this, but without success

ShellExecute Me.hwnd, "open", "5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_cv1g1gvanyjgm!App", "", "", 0

the shortcut shows this location but, it seems not to be a traditional shortcut, I couldn't get what you see through code.

Private Sub Form_Load()
    MsgBox GetLnkTarget("C:\Users\Leandro\OneDrive\Escritorio\WhatsApp - Acceso directo.lnk")
End Sub


Private Function GetLnkTarget(ByVal sPath As String) As String
    Dim WSH         As Object
    Dim oShellLnk   As Object
 
    Set WSH = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    Set oShellLnk = WSH.CreateShortcut(sPath)
 
    GetLnkTarget = oShellLnk.TargetPath
 
    Set WSH = Nothing
    Set oShellLnk = Nothing
End Function

The only temporary solution is to run the shortcut with ShellExecute,but I already depend on creating the shortcut

[LeandroA]

ooo solved with this, thanks

ShellExecute Me.hwnd, "Open", "whatsapp://", "", "", 0

However, it's weird how this works, it's still a mystery how to run these kinds of applications.

I see that it also works for spotify

ShellExecute Me.hwnd, "Open", "spotify://", "", "", 0

[fafalone]

Looks like this is the official way:

Private Declare Function CoAllowSetForegroundWindow Lib "ole32" (pUnk As Any, plvReserved As Any) As Long

Dim pAppActivator As New ApplicationActivationManager
Dim pUnk As oleexp.IUnknown
Dim pid As Long

Set pUnk = pAppActivator
CoAllowSetForegroundWindow pUnk, ByVal 0&
pAppActivator.ActivateApplication StrPtr("App User Model Id"), StrPtr("arguments"), AO_NONE, pid

The required interface/coclass isn't in the current public version of oleexp, I'm attaching a beta version of the next release containing it.

Looks like you can get the app user model id by appending the family name with ! and the name from AppxManifest.xml in it's folder.

For info on that and enumerating all the installed store apps, see this:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...ndows-8-and-10

[georgekar]

Use explorer "netflix:\"

(this is the command for running netflix, from cmd.exe, from start (windows key + R)

You can use shell() (from vb6) but you have to check two times:
If Is64bit Then Wow64EnableWow64FsRedirection False
put the sell( ) here

If Is64bit Then Wow64EnableWow64FsRedirection True

Public Declare Function Wow64EnableWow64FsRedirection Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal Enable As Boolean) As Boolean
Private Declare Function GetProcAddress Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hModule As Long, ByVal lpProcName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function GetModuleHandle Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetModuleHandleA" (ByVal lpModuleName As String) As Long

Private Declare Function GetCurrentProcess Lib "kernel32" () As Long
Private Declare Function IsWow64Process Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hProc As Long, bWow64Process As Boolean) As Long


Public Function Is64bit() As Boolean
    Static m As Boolean, used As Boolean
If used Then
Else
   If GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandle("kernel32"), "IsWow64Process") > 0 Then
      IsWow64Process GetCurrentProcess(), m
      used = True
   End If
End If
   Is64bit = m
End Function

[LeandroA]

Looks like this is the official way:

Private Declare Function CoAllowSetForegroundWindow Lib "ole32" (pUnk As Any, plvReserved As Any) As Long

Dim pAppActivator As New ApplicationActivationManager
Dim pUnk As oleexp.IUnknown
Dim pid As Long

Set pUnk = pAppActivator
CoAllowSetForegroundWindow pUnk, ByVal 0&
pAppActivator.ActivateApplication StrPtr("App User Model Id"), StrPtr("arguments"), AO_NONE, pid

The required interface/coclass isn't in the current public version of oleexp, I'm attaching a beta version of the next release containing it.

Looks like you can get the app user model id by appending the family name with ! and the name from AppxManifest.xml in it's folder.

For info on that and enumerating all the installed store apps, see this:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...ndows-8-and-10

Excellent, I was almost sure that the only way would be through oleexp, but I had no idea how.
I tell you using the CoAllowSetForegroundWindow vb6 api it crashes, and without calling that api it works fine.

I have a query for you, I should open a new thread but I think it will be a quick answer, I am currently making use of your work with SHDoDragDrop, what I do is automate DragDrop on web.whatsapp.com that is on a web browser (in my case chrome) this works fine both in the ide and compiled, now within WhatsAppDesktop it does not allow me to drop from the ide and this is because I have vb6.exe with administrator privileges, just to clear my doubt, it is possible that there may be some way that work between applications with different privileges?

[LeandroA]

Use explorer "netflix:\"

(this is the command for running netflix, from cmd.exe, from start (windows key + R)

You can use shell() (from vb6) but you have to check two times:
If Is64bit Then Wow64EnableWow64FsRedirection False
put the sell( ) here

If Is64bit Then Wow64EnableWow64FsRedirection True

Public Declare Function Wow64EnableWow64FsRedirection Lib "kernel32.dll" (ByVal Enable As Boolean) As Boolean
Private Declare Function GetProcAddress Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hModule As Long, ByVal lpProcName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function GetModuleHandle Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetModuleHandleA" (ByVal lpModuleName As String) As Long

Private Declare Function GetCurrentProcess Lib "kernel32" () As Long
Private Declare Function IsWow64Process Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hProc As Long, bWow64Process As Boolean) As Long


Public Function Is64bit() As Boolean
    Static m As Boolean, used As Boolean
If used Then
Else
   If GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandle("kernel32"), "IsWow64Process") > 0 Then
      IsWow64Process GetCurrentProcess(), m
      used = True
   End If
End If
   Is64bit = m
End Function

thanks, interesting
For now I am going to choose ShellExecuteW since it is easier for me to use its api and be able to send unicode parameters

ShellExecute mHwnd, StrPtr("Open"), StrPtr("whatsapp://send?phone=" & PhoneNumber & "&text=" & Text), 0, 0, 1

[fafalone]

Excellent, I was almost sure that the only way would be through oleexp, but I had no idea how.
I tell you using the CoAllowSetForegroundWindow vb6 api it crashes, and without calling that api it works fine.

I have a query for you, I should open a new thread but I think it will be a quick answer, I am currently making use of your work with SHDoDragDrop, what I do is automate DragDrop on web.whatsapp.com that is on a web browser (in my case chrome) this works fine both in the ide and compiled, now within WhatsAppDesktop it does not allow me to drop from the ide and this is because I have vb6.exe with administrator privileges, just to clear my doubt, it is possible that there may be some way that work between applications with different privileges?

Yes. You must install it to Program Files (x86) and have uiAccess=True in the manifest.

	<asmv2:trustInfo>
		<asmv2:security>
			<asmv2:requestedPrivileges>
				<asmv2:requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="true"/>
			</asmv2:requestedPrivileges>
		</asmv2:security>
	</asmv2:trustInfo>

For that API, I refuse to let Windows Store on my computer so couldn't test the declare; try ByVal pUnk As Any or ByVal pUnk As oleexp.IUnknown.

[LeandroA]

Yes. You must install it to Program Files (x86) and have uiAccess=True in the manifest.

	<asmv2:trustInfo>
		<asmv2:security>
			<asmv2:requestedPrivileges>
				<asmv2:requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" uiAccess="true"/>
			</asmv2:requestedPrivileges>
		</asmv2:security>
	</asmv2:trustInfo>

For that API, I refuse to let Windows Store on my computer so couldn't test the declare; try ByVal pUnk As Any or ByVal pUnk As oleexp.IUnknown.

Private Declare Function CoAllowSetForegroundWindow Lib "ole32" (ByVal pUnk As Any, ByVal plvReserved As Any) As Long

With ByVal It doesn't crash, but I'm not sure if it's doing its job since I don't notice a difference if I use it or not, it works fine with or without it, and it always opens as a Foreground Window

As for the manifest, I couldn't make it work, if I put uiAccess="true" when running the application it gives me "The server has returned a reference", I put the executable in C:\Program Files (x86) but it gives the same error .

[VanGoghGaming]

uiAccess="true" works only if your executable is signed with a certificate.

[fafalone]

Oops yeah sorry forgot that part. Absolutely ridiculous the hoops you have to go through for drag drop these days. I can understand not letting an admin app drop on an unprivileged app, but why shouldn't unprivileged apps be able to drop on admin apps?

[Eduardo-]

Hello. The IDE runs fine without admin rights, it just need admin rights when needs to register a new component.
(I usually run the IDE as non-admin BTW).

[Schmidt]

Absolutely ridiculous the hoops you have to go through for drag drop these days.

Indeed - though from what I read in other developer-forums, there's salvation possible via:
ChangeWindowMessageFilter ... https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...wmessagefilter

Where one can specify the relevant messages (like WM_COPYDATA, WM_DROPFILES, WM_COPYGLOBALDATA)
along with the MSGFLT_ADD flag.

The currently recommended variant of this is the hWnd-specific one: ChangeWindowMessageFilterEx

Olaf