Creating MSIX App Attach Disks

Different ways to create MSIX App Attach Disks.

In this blog, we are going to see the different ways to create MSIX App Attach Disks from MSIX package.The two available options are

1. Using msixmgr Tool

In this approach, you need to follow the below steps

• Create the VHD file
• Initialize the VHD disk
• Format the VHD disk
• Create an empty folder inside the VHD
• Use MSIXMgr command to unzip the MSIX and store the files in MSIX AppAttach disk

1. Using the MSIX Hero 🙂

This is a cool community tool created by Marcin Otorowski. It does all the trick by itself. Will create a disk, size it as per the package requirement and unzip the MSIX package in a single click.

Create the disk using MSIXMgr Tool

The first step is to create a blank VHD to save the MSIX package.

Open disk management and Under Action, select Create VHD

• Provide a name and location where you want to save your VHD file.
• Provide the size for the VHD file, make sure you select adequate space considering the MSIX package size. It has been observed that the MSIX will grow to 1.5x times or more when unpacked as a MSIX App Attach disk.
• Select the disk type as “dynamic”

• Once the disk is created, Initialize the disk from disk manager.

• Create a “New simple volume” and format the disk.

• You can format the disk as NTFS File system

• Once the disk is ready, create an empty folder in the Drive. I am going to unpack “Notepad++” package, hence created a folder named NotepadPlus.

Download the MSIXMgr tool from Microsoft website. https://aka.ms/msixmgr

Run the below mentioned command to unpack the MSIX package to MSIX App Attach disk.

Msixmgr.exe -unpack -packagepath “<location of MSIX package” -destination “<driveletter of the disk you attached\folder created\”

The time taken to unpack depends on the MSIX package size. Once done, the result will be shown like “Finished unpackaging packages to <drive\folder\>”

You can verify the same by opening the folder you created earlier. The unzipped files will be created under a folder like shown below.

Using MSIX Hero

Install MSIX Hero from https://msixhero.net website

Open the software and click on “MSIX App Attach” icon

Select the MSIX package, and Click on Create to create the VHD file.Leave the VHD size option as default. MSIX hero will auto calculate the required disk size and create the disk.

You can also create the powershell scripts required to stage, register the MSIX App Attach manually

Next blog, I will write about attaching an MSIX App Attach package to session hosts.