Re:MSFT is building a new app store for Windows 10 in major ...
by WorldMaker on Tuesday April 20, 2021 @08:16PM
(#26883772)
MSIX packages have a lot of very interesting technical support for "overlays" that could be used for some very powerful mod/patch support if there was a good UI for it and maybe sideloading support with a good UI for it.
You couldn't just open File Explorer and expect to fiddle bits directly in Notepad.exe, but MSIX had the capabilities to create a "Package Explorer" to fiddle some bits in Notepad.exe (or whatever) and then package the fiddling into an overlay.
A couple games have used a subset of this tech to provide official mod support, but yeah it's overall a shame that Microsoft teased the idea of but never quite developed a general option/solution for "MSIX mods" at a high level despite having most of the platform tech for it.
You couldn't just open File Explorer and expect to fiddle bits directly in Notepad.exe, but MSIX had the capabilities to create a "Package Explorer" to fiddle some bits in Notepad.exe (or whatever) and then package the fiddling into an overlay.
A couple games have used a subset of this tech to provide official mod support, but yeah it's overall a shame that Microsoft teased the idea of but never quite developed a general option/solution for "MSIX mods" at a high level despite having most of the platform tech for it.