First tagged release — corresponds to the version shipping today in the Microsoft Store.

📦 Install

Recommended: install from the Microsoft Store, or:

winget install --id 9N7X47BX4R58 --source msstore

The Store install gives you both the WinUI app and the msixplainer CLI (on PATH), and updates automatically.

No binaries are attached to this release. The .msixbundle produced by Package.ps1 in this repo is signed with a self-signed dev cert and is not suitable for distribution. Use the Store for production installs.

✨ Highlights since project start

Manifest review (the core feature)

• Categorized findings across 18 security-relevant areas (trust level, restricted capabilities, virtualization, services, COM, protocols, file associations, background tasks, WebView2, …)
• Severity tags (🔴 Critical / 🟡 Warning / 🔵 Review / ℹ️ Info) with per-rule plain-English explanations
• Tunable severities via a local rules.json (CI-friendly)
• Markdown + structured JSON export

Update diff & bandwidth planner

• Byte-exact parity with Microsoft's comparepackage.exe (Windows SDK) using AppxBlockMap.xml block-hash diffing
• Handles flat .msix / .appx and full .msixbundle payloads (per-architecture)
• Fleet rollout estimator: device count + link speeds + egress cost → hours-to-deploy and $ figures
• Top-N changed files with size deltas, duplicate-file detection
• Robust against real-world bundles (handles stub packages, multiple same-arch inner packages — e.g. Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller)

Installed apps pane

• Outlook-style list of every MSIX-packaged app on the machine
• Pick any installed app and MSIXplain it the same way as a .msix from disk
• Use installed apps as either side of an update Compare — answer "what would updating this installed app cost on the wire?" without hunting down the original .msix

CLI

• msixplainer <package> — full review, prints categorized findings
• msixplainer diff <old> <new> — update diff + bandwidth planner
• msixplainer --version / -v
• --markdown / --json / --output / --severity / --quiet switches
• Exit codes 0 / 1 / 2 → clean / warnings / critical (CI-gate friendly)

WinUI app

• Sections pane for the manifest review, Compare with sidebar (Diff / Bandwidth Planner / Duplicates)
• Swap button between Old and New package pickers
• Settings page: Light / Dark / Use system theme, About card with version

Everything runs locally. No cloud, no LLM, no telemetry, no network calls.

🧰 Tests

149 / 149 MSIXplainer.Core.Tests passing.