Windows Phone 8 XAP file hacked, patched, bypass Windows Store - windows-phone-8

About 1 month ago, I see my app (xap file) hacked and published on too many sites that distribute XAP for windows phone 8, if you download the XAP from windows store, you can't unzip it's content, but When I download the xap from hacked sites, I can unzip and refactor the code! and the app bypass windows store then the user can use it without paying its price!
When I started WP8 dev. I heard that WP7 can be hacked but WP8 cannot!,
Its too frustrating, is WP8 hacked now?
Thanks

Yes, there were a couple of older (non-Nokia) Windows Phone 8 devices that were rooted. I think one was one of the older Samsung phones. Anyways, because they rooted it, you are able to copy the contents of the XAP files from a device unencrypted and view their contents. It sucks but there is not a lot that can be done about it.
The good news is a) You can only install these XAPs on other rooted or developer-unlocked phones, and b) all Windows Phone 8 devices will be upgraded to Windows Phone 8.1 this year, which uses a new packaging format (mitigating the issue somewhat).
HTH

Related

Publish windows phone 8 silverlight app

I am having windows phone 8 silverlight app. I need to publish it on Windows store. Can you please provide or explain step by step guide to publish this app in store.
Stackoverflow link discussed already. But after changing the values in files manually what need to do after tha?
I followed the steps mention here, but i am getting certification issue after submitting app.
This is a guide to publishing applications in Windows Store. Important -Silverligth app supported only Windows Phone and not supported Windows 8 and Windows 10. For supported Windows RT you need to make migration to universal app.
Windows App certification kit is very nice utility. Before publishing app use this app for analysis. When i run analysis of my XAP file using this utility, I found that i was using some default images that was main issue in certification failure. Now i am updating that. And will let you if this works or not.

Windows phone xap testing and sharing

I'm developping an application with Cordova targeted for Windows phone 8.
I'm able to build a De bug or Release Xap for windows phone and deploy it on device using usual tools. The matter is that my clients want to test it too but they don't have any of sdk tools (only a device).
What is the better solution to do that ?
Installing Xap file from sd card or phone storage doesn't work (company issue message). Sign xap with sdk tools for testing and then retry to install it from sdcard doesn't work.
Is the beta test store the only solution ? (Very long procedure)
Ty fort any tips...
The easiest way is just to create a beta and send them a download link. It's done in less then 5 minutes and you can update the app quickly, publish it again and retest it within minutes.

How to package and upload my Cordova App to Windows Store from Visual Studio 2013

We paid a developer account in Windows Store (enterprise).
We created a Cordova 3.7 app for Windows Phone 8.1 and even we could test directly on a phone with Windows 8.1 from Visual Studio 2013 and everything worked in the hardware.
therefore, We begin to fill in the details for the App We need to publish in the store.
There is a section in which we are asked to upload a packaged App so here We have the chance of selecting it on the disk.
Our problem is We don't know how to create the pack and where in the disk Visual Studio left it.
We started to search in msdn.microsoft.com and these are the ideas we could get (but still couldn't make a pack):
1) Every where in MSDN they talk about a STORE option on Visual Studio. We can see this option in the ppal menu but all its options are disabled.
But in a forum, after searching a lot, We could figure out that this is normal for Cordova Apps on Visual Studio 2013 because they are considered as Silverlight Apps.
Then We find out again a doc in MSDN about uploading Silverlight Apps to Win Store. They say this kind of Apps must be packed and uploaded by hand.
2) So We focused in find out how to prepare a Windows Phone Silverlight 8.1 app for publishing.
This is a link in MSDN :http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/dn655122(v=vs.105).aspx
But a new problem comes out, We don’t have any Package.appxmanifest.xml file in our project but only have aWMAppManifest.xml file.
We finally find out only Windows Phone 8.1 projects on Visual Studio have the Package.appxmanifest.xml file and it seems that my Cordova Project was generated like a kind of a Win Phone 8.0, what is not that bad because we want our App to be supported by Windows P. 8.0 and 8.1 devices.
But at the end of all this journey, we are stuck at the first step again. So we realized we don't know how pack a Windows Phone 8 (Cordova) App in order to be uploaded to Windows Store.
How and where Visual Studio 2013 make the pack and what is the extension name of this file.
The App, as I said, is ok and can be deployed and executed OK in a real phone from Visual Studio (run button)
Sorry, We know the question is large but We wanted to clear what We had reached so you know What We are asking and What We could have done bad just in case.
Thanks in advance, We think a lot of people could profit of the answer of experts in this matter because a summary is needed, the info in MSDN seem disperse.
You cannot upload a Windows Phone Silverlight xap to the Windows Store, only to the Windows Phone store. To upload to the Windows Phone store you won't need the Package.appxmanifest for a Windows Phone 8 app (only for a Windows Phone 8.1 app).
You'll upload the xap file created when you build for release with the normal build process. You don't need to do any further modifications for a Silverlight app.
You can create either Windows Phone or Windows Store apps with Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova
Use Project->Store->Create App Packages.. from visual studio menu.
http://taco.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/tutorial-package-publish-readme/#package-the-windows-version-of-your-app

How can I port a Windows Phone 8 app to Windows Phone 8.1?

I've been working on a Windows Phone 8 app, which I now want to change to be Windows Phone 8.1. How can I do this?
Should I create a new Windows Phone 8.1 app and copy all my existing files into it? Or is there an automated way for me to upgrade the existing solution to 8.1?
There are two ways to do that:
like in comment - right click on oyour project and you should see Retarget to Windows Phone 8.1
or you can open Properties window of your project and the in dropdown box Target Windows Phone OS version you can choose Windows Phone 8.1
In every case the VS should ask if you are sure to do that - it's one-way operation, so it's worth to make a backup of your solution. As WP8.1 has backward compability, in most cases there shouldn't be any problems.
Some clarification for the followers:
As WP8.0 apps are Silverlight, after retargetting it will still be a Silverlight app but WP8.1 (some new features and enhancemens).
Thought, if you want to retarget to WP8.1 Runtime, it's a totally different thing - it's a different type of an app, different API and more. You will have to port it manually. Note that not all features from WP8.0 are yet available in WP8.1 Runtime - here is a good article about that.

How upload XAP file with Windows Phone Power Tools on tablet?

I would need to upload a XAP file done for Windows 8 Phone to a Windows 8.1 Tablet.
I know that Windows Phone Power Tools do it but since this tool was done for Windows 8 Phone and not for Tablet, for it. Could I upload this XAP into my Tablet with it? Is it possible?
Thanks in advance
Best Regards
Alejandro
Windows Phone 8 apps are not compatible or in other words do not work in Windows 8. Though you can share some code using PCL (Portable Class Libraries), the development environment and architecture is different for both.
So the answer for your question is, it is not possible to deploy or run your Windows Phone apps on a Windows 8 tablet.