Windows App Certification Kit – Error: Another user has installed an unpackaged version

After testing my new windows store app in debug mode, I then prepared to test my application using the Windows App Certification Kit.

After the code compiled successfully and automatically launched the certification kit, I got the following error:

This occurred because I launched the certification kit after adding my account to the local administrators group account. I could not remove the existing application as it was not listed on the desktop.

By using the following steps below I successfully removed the app and created another package to test with the certification kit.

1. Launch Windows PS (PowerShell) using the Run as administrator account

2. Execute the following command in the PS console window

Get-AppxPackage   -Name *<app name>* -AllUsers

where <app name> is the name of your windows app. In my scenario the PS script looked like Get-AppxPackage –Name *mycontents* -AllUsers

3.  Using the information found above, you can now determine the users who have installed the app. In my case it was the user primary\mm

4. There are two options to remove this package, either run the following PS script as the administrator or logon as the user specified in the property PackageUserInformation. In this case the user was “primary\mm”

Get-AppxPackage   -Name *mycontents* –AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage

After executing the PS script, I could now run the certification kit. Also as a side note you must be a member of the local administrators group on the computer when creating the App Package and performing the certification check.

Enjoy.