Developer license required for sideloading metro app?

Question

Is it required to have a developer license on the target machine to be able to sideload metro apps? What if the user does not want/have a developer license (live id)? How do I get around it other than submitting the app to the store? Also, does the machine need to be joined to the domain to be able to sideloadthe app?

Answer 1

This Microsoft resource resumes it nicely: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh852635.aspx; in short unless you use Windows 8 Enterprise and are in a domain, the only way to sideloading is using a developer license.

Answer 2

There should be a way to enable sideloading using a "sideloading product activation key" that is mentioned in the TechNet article Rafael linked:

"Before you can run sideloaded LOB apps:

You must activate the sideloading product key on a device running Windows 8 Enterprise or Windows® 8 Pro. You must activate the sideloading product key on a device running Windows RT.

-OR-

You must join the device running Windows 8 Enterprise or Windows Server 2012 to an Active Directory domain that has the Allow all trusted applications to install Group Policy setting enabled.

... To enable sideloading on a Windows 8 Enterprise device that is not domain-joined, you must use a sideloading product activation key."

This blog post is more detailed, but unfortunately does also not mention where to get the product key: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsstore/archive/2012/04/25/deploying-metro-style-apps-to-businesses.aspx

Sideloading should then be enabled using following code:

slmgr /ipk <sideloading product key>
slmgr /ato ec67814b-30e6-4a50-bf7b-d55daf729d1e

ec67814b-30e6-4a50-bf7b-d55daf729d1e is always the same key used as an "activation GUID".

The remaining question is where to get this sideloading product activation key. I did not yet find an answer to that (see for example http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793433.aspx). Possibly companies must purchase such keys from Microsoft and they don't have a solution for that yet. I asked this question to a Microsoft Evangelist I have contact with and will hopefully get an answer soon (that I'll post here).

B.T.W. For companies that deploy Windows Store Apps to customers Microsoft simple must allow deployment without the Store and without the need for joining a domain. There would be no other way to deploy an App just to certain customers.

Answer 3

If sideloading to test your own app without it being in an enterprise, you only need a developer licence to test the app on another machine. If you are getting somebody else to test then one would assume then that they would require a developer licence - this article refers to developer licences and mentions sideloading - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/windows/apps/hh974578.aspx