Login to your UWP with your MSA

Here’s the idea, you want your UWP user to login with their MSA so you can get their information, access OneDrive, Outlook, Office, Rome devices or just their profile photo and name. Whatever the reason, it’s more simple than you think.

Please note: the Live SDK we used to use for this has been deprecated and now we use Microsoft Graph for just about everything around authentication & access.

Here are your four easy steps to follow:

1. Register your app @ http://apps.dev.microsoft.com
2. Add your ClientID & ReturnURL to app.xaml Resources
3. Copy AuthenticationHelper.cs
4. Nuget packages
1. PM> Install-Package Microsoft.Graph
2. PM> Install-Package Microsoft.Identity.Client –pre

Set up Xbox One for UWP development

Since Anniversary Update (Windows 10 1607) Xbox One has supported UWP developers and the Windows Store has supported UWP apps targeting Xbox One. You can use any Xbox One as a developer machine. This blog will walk you through the process of setting it up. It's a lot of steps, but pretty easy.

First, what are the prerequisites?

1. An Xbox One with local, shared network access
2. Visual Studio 15 Preview 5 (or VS 2015 Update 3+)

Search for the Dev Mode Activation app in the Store

Understanding TargetDeviceFamily

If you are like me, you might spelunk from time to time in the bowels of your application's manifest file. But, "why?", you might ask, "Isn't everything in the manifest revealed in the graphical editor in Visual Studio?" Oh, you poor child. Allow me to enlighten you on this one: No.

One such setting is the <TargetDeviceFamily /> node, the child of <Dependencies />, the child of <Package />.

You can find it documented on MSDN where it provides this illuminating prose: "Identifies the device family that your package targets." There are some examples, sure, but I wanted to take a moment and make it painstakingly clear. I want to remove any doubt and leave you with the confidence to look at your manifest and edit it without fear.

Fact is, you set this when you create your project. The dialog above appears when you create a new Universal Windows Platform app. It's asking you the Target and Minimum version. But, of what? It is setting the initial versions of the "Windows.Universal" target device family.