ClickOnce applications and Windows 8 certification

Question

Is it possible to have a ClickOnce, WPF application certified as compatible with Windows 8?

Note that I’m not referring to getting the application certified for the Windows Store. I just would like to have it certified as a compatible Windows 8 desktop application.

Answer 1

No, ClickOnce applications can't be certified. :(

Here is the official word from the team:

ClickOnce deployment manages install/uninstall a bit different than a traditional installer. For instance, install location doesn’t go to %ProgramFiles% as mandated by the desktop certification requirements, short cuts have a different extension used by Windows app e.g. *.lnk, and so forth. The result is these apps aren’t properly detected by ACK, and hence cannot be certified.

For non-ClickOnce desktop applications, check out Get your desktop app compatible on how to get your desktop application ready and certified. Also look at the left menu sidebar (specifically Windows 8 and Windows RT Compatible Logo Usage Guidelines). This gives you the ability to display the “Windows 8 Compatible” logo on your application since it is certified as compatible.