How to Sideload Apps on Windows 10 and Windows Phone 10

Do you develop apps for Windows PC and Windows Phone? Is YES, here is a good news for you that you can now sideload apps on your Windows 10 PC and Windows Phone 10 without having any security warning or clutter. This is indeed a great update from Microsoft so that Windows developers can get more facilities.

You can sideload apps. But, do you actually know the meaning of “sidelaoding”? let me explain.

How to Sideload Apps on Windows 10 and Windows Phone 10

Generally, software for Windows PC and Windows Phone is made through Visual Studio. But, a Visual Studio package cannot run directly on Windows PC and Windows 10 mobile. You need the Windows SDK to test the app before launching it for public. However, now, users can use the same package or pre-launch app on Windows 10 PC as well as Windows Phone 10 by enabling a simple option.

Developer Mode in Windows 10 for PC and Mobile

Microsoft has included several new options in these two platforms and Developer Mode is one of them. Developer Mode is a bunch of settings that is available on Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 10122 or later and Windows Phone 10 Technical Preview Build 10166 or later.

How to sideload apps on Windows 10?

The process is quite easy and not much time consuming. You will get the option under Update & Security and this option is included in new Windows System Settings. To get that, press Win + I together and select Update & Security. Following that, go to For Developers section. Now, you will get three different options.

sideload apps on Windows 10

The first option will not do anything. The second and third option will enable the Developer Mode on your Windows 10 PC so that you can install apps from outside the Windows Store without getting any security warning.

How to sideload apps on Windows Phone 10?

The procedure is quite same as Windows 10 PC. Alike PC, you can enable Developer Mode on Windows Phone 10 as well for doing the same. To enable that, follow the following steps. At first, go to Settings and find out Update & Security. Under Update & Security, you will get an option called For Developers.

sideload apps on Windows Phone 10

Now, you can select any of the two options (Sideload apps and Developer Mode) to install apps from outside of the Windows Phone Store.

These are the simplest method to enable Developer Mode and sideload app on Windows 10 PC as well as Windows 10 for mobile. However, the same thing can be done using Group Policy Editor as well as Registry Editor on Windows 10.

Enable sideloading using Group Policy Editor

At first, open Group Policy Editor. To do so, press Win + R together, type gpedit.msc and hit enter. After that, go through the following options,

Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > App Package Deployment

You will some two options those are as follows,

  • Allows development of Windows Store apps and installing them from an integrated development environment (IDE)
  • Allow all trusted apps to install

Allow trusted apps using group policy editor

By default, Not Configured is selected. You need to enable them as per your wish. If you want to sideload apps, you can enable “Allow all trusted apps to install” and if you want to develop app right from visual Studio, you need to enable the other option.

To enable any one of them, just double click on the respective option, select Enabled and save your change.

Enable sideloading using Registry Editor

The same thing can be done through Registry Editor. But, before using Registry Editor for this trick, just make sure that you have created a backup of your Registry files.

Following that, open Registry Editor. To open Registry Editor, press Win + R together, type regedit and hit enter. After that, navigate through the following path,

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock

Now create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value on your right hand side. After creating, name it AllowAllTrustedApps and set the value to 1. To set the value, just double click on the value and enter 1.

Allow Sideload apps using registry editor

If you want to enable Developer Mode, just create another DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense. After that, set the value to 1.

You should remember that you could enable only one thing at one time. That means, if you enable Sideload Apps, you cannot enable Developer Mode and vice versa.

Hope this little trick will help you to get started with app deployment on Windows 10.

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