Iapplicationactivationmanager::Activateapplication in C#

IApplicationActivationManager::ActivateApplication in C#?

Try with the below code snippet which works for me.

public enum ActivateOptions
{
    None = 0x00000000,  // No flags set
    DesignMode = 0x00000001,  // The application is being activated for design mode, and thus will not be able to
    // to create an immersive window. Window creation must be done by design tools which
    // load the necessary components by communicating with a designer-specified service on
    // the site chain established on the activation manager.  The splash screen normally
    // shown when an application is activated will also not appear.  Most activations
    // will not use this flag.
    NoErrorUI = 0x00000002,  // Do not show an error dialog if the app fails to activate.                                
    NoSplashScreen = 0x00000004,  // Do not show the splash screen when activating the app.
}

[ComImport, Guid("2e941141-7f97-4756-ba1d-9decde894a3d"), InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)]
interface IApplicationActivationManager
{
    // Activates the specified immersive application for the "Launch" contract, passing the provided arguments
    // string into the application.  Callers can obtain the process Id of the application instance fulfilling this contract.
    IntPtr ActivateApplication([In] String appUserModelId, [In] String arguments, [In] ActivateOptions options, [Out] out UInt32 processId);
    IntPtr ActivateForFile([In] String appUserModelId, [In] IntPtr /*IShellItemArray* */ itemArray, [In] String verb, [Out] out UInt32 processId);
    IntPtr ActivateForProtocol([In] String appUserModelId, [In] IntPtr /* IShellItemArray* */itemArray, [Out] out UInt32 processId);
}

[ComImport, Guid("45BA127D-10A8-46EA-8AB7-56EA9078943C")]//Application Activation Manager
class ApplicationActivationManager : IApplicationActivationManager
{
    [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.InternalCall, MethodCodeType = MethodCodeType.Runtime)/*, PreserveSig*/]
    public extern IntPtr ActivateApplication([In] String appUserModelId, [In] String arguments, [In] ActivateOptions options, [Out] out UInt32 processId);
    [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.InternalCall, MethodCodeType = MethodCodeType.Runtime)]
    public extern IntPtr ActivateForFile([In] String appUserModelId, [In] IntPtr /*IShellItemArray* */ itemArray, [In] String verb, [Out] out UInt32 processId);
    [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.InternalCall, MethodCodeType = MethodCodeType.Runtime)]
    public extern IntPtr ActivateForProtocol([In] String appUserModelId, [In] IntPtr /* IShellItemArray* */itemArray, [Out] out UInt32 processId);
}

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        ApplicationActivationManager appActiveManager = new ApplicationActivationManager();//Class not registered
        uint pid;
        appActiveManager.ActivateApplication("2c123c17-8b21-4eb8-8b7f-fdc35c8b7718_n2533ggrncqjt!App", null, ActivateOptions.None, out pid);
        Console.WriteLine();
        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

Hope you might already aware how to get the Application name to activate. However, wanted to share that information here for other who might search the same. We can get the AppUserModelID from the below registry location:

Start Windows 8 app from code in C#

I found the answer to my own question, actually. There is a command called Start that actually does this. For example, I just did "Start MicrosoftMusic:" and that did the trick (yes the colon is there on purpose).

Launch Voice Recorder in Windows 10 programmatically

The correct way to launch an AppX app from the desktop is to use the shell's IApplicationActivationManager::ActivateApplication method.

void Main()
{
    var mgr = new ApplicationActivationManager();
    uint processId;
    var name = "Microsoft.WindowsSoundRecorder_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App";
    mgr.ActivateApplication(name, null, ActivateOptions.None, out processId);
}

public enum ActivateOptions
{
    None = 0x00000000,  // No flags set
    DesignMode = 0x00000001,  // The application is being activated for design mode, and thus will not be able to
    // to create an immersive window. Window creation must be done by design tools which
    // load the necessary components by communicating with a designer-specified service on
    // the site chain established on the activation manager.  The splash screen normally
    // shown when an application is activated will also not appear.  Most activations
    // will not use this flag.
    NoErrorUI = 0x00000002,  // Do not show an error dialog if the app fails to activate.
    NoSplashScreen = 0x00000004,  // Do not show the splash screen when activating the app.
}

[ComImport, Guid("2e941141-7f97-4756-ba1d-9decde894a3d"), InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)]
interface IApplicationActivationManager
{
    // Activates the specified immersive application for the "Launch" contract, passing the provided arguments
    // string into the application.  Callers can obtain the process Id of the application instance fulfilling this contract.
    IntPtr ActivateApplication([In] String appUserModelId, [In] String arguments, [In] ActivateOptions options, [Out] out UInt32 processId);
    IntPtr ActivateForFile([In] String appUserModelId, [In] [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Interface, IidParameterIndex = 2)] /*IShellItemArray* */ IShellItemArray itemArray, [In] String verb, [Out] out UInt32 processId);
    IntPtr ActivateForProtocol([In] String appUserModelId, [In] IntPtr /* IShellItemArray* */itemArray, [Out] out UInt32 processId);
}

[ComImport, Guid("45BA127D-10A8-46EA-8AB7-56EA9078943C")]//Application Activation Manager
class ApplicationActivationManager : IApplicationActivationManager
{
    [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.InternalCall, MethodCodeType = MethodCodeType.Runtime)/*, PreserveSig*/]
    public extern IntPtr ActivateApplication([In] String appUserModelId, [In] String arguments, [In] ActivateOptions options, [Out] out UInt32 processId);
    [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.InternalCall, MethodCodeType = MethodCodeType.Runtime)]
    public extern IntPtr ActivateForFile([In] String appUserModelId, [In] [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Interface, IidParameterIndex = 2)]  /*IShellItemArray* */ IShellItemArray itemArray, [In] String verb, [Out] out UInt32 processId);
    [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.InternalCall, MethodCodeType = MethodCodeType.Runtime)]
    public extern IntPtr ActivateForProtocol([In] String appUserModelId, [In] IntPtr /* IShellItemArray* */itemArray, [Out] out UInt32 processId);
}

[ComImport]
[InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)]
[Guid("43826d1e-e718-42ee-bc55-a1e261c37bfe")]
interface IShellItem
{
}

[ComImport]
[InterfaceType(ComInterfaceType.InterfaceIsIUnknown)]
[Guid("b63ea76d-1f85-456f-a19c-48159efa858b")]
interface IShellItemArray
{
}

Download this code for LinqPad

Is there any better way to Launch UWP apps from Console application

To launch any UWP app on the system you can use the following API:

AppListEntry.LaunchAsync Method

To get the AppListEntry for the desired application, use the PackageManager APIs:
PackageManager.FindPackageForUser(String, String) Method

Package.GetAppListEntriesAsync Method

Alternatively, you can use the following Win32 API insteadp of the AppListEntry API:

IApplicationActivationManager::ActivateApplication method

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