How To Start Windows Store Apps in AutoHotKey?

Question

Window Store apps are not like the classic Windows apps. The latter usually are installed at clear paths under C:\Program Files. So, AutoHotKey (AHK) scripts can simply run a classic app by "Run" with the path to the app executable. However, it seems there is no simple path to Windows Store app executables. So, how to start Windows Store apps in AutoHotKey scripts with a simple way?

Answer 1

Assume the OS is Windows 10. The following steps are a simple way to start Windows Store app in AHK script:

1. Create a folder, e.g. D:\WinStoreAppLinks
2. Drag and drop a Windows Store app, e.g. OneNote (mobile), by mouse in All App List to D:\WinStoreAppLinks (through File Explorer). It will create a link there, OneNote. You can rename it as you want.
3. The app can be run in AutoHotKey scripts (or Command Prompt), by e.g.:

Run, D:\WinStoreAppLinks\OneNote

Answer 2

Run shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.WindowsAlarms_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App

Check shell:AppsFolder for full app names list

Answer 3

Here is a more verbose answer that worked for me:

1. In an Explorer window navigate to shell:AppsFolder. This is a directory with all your Windows apps
2. Find the app you want to launch (in my case Windows Terminal), right click it, and select Create Shortcut
3. Accept the prompt to create this shortcut on your desktop
4. Put this shortcut somewhere other than your desktop (e.g. C:\Shortcuts). Rename if desired

5. Add this to your AHK script:

   Run, "C:\Shortcuts\Windows Terminal"
   

Then simple reload your AHK script. Enjoy

Answer 4

This autohotkey script https://github.com/JuanmaMenendez/AutoHotkey-script-Open-Show-Apps works perfectly with any kind of app.

In the specific case of Windows Store Apps, read the section Find AppUserModelID and use the Utility Function c)

Answer 5

Some of the other answers have the right idea, but are vague about which specific values to use or where to find them. Other answers have breaking typos. So here is an explanation of what you truly need, without requiring any additional shortcuts.

The Windows Store apps are in the Apps Folder, which you can see by entering shell:AppsFolder in the Win+R run window. The location identifier for the app is in the form: shell:AppsFolder\<PackageFamilyName>!<Name.id>, where <PackageFamilyName> and <Name.id> are placeholders. You'll need to replace those placeholders with the values for your application. For example, the location string for WhatsApp is shell:AppsFolder\5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_cv1g1gvanyjgm!WhatsAppDesktop.

To discover the values for your application, go into PowerShell and look through the output of Get-AppxPackage to find the application you want. You can probably find it using: Get-AppxPackage -Name "*<AppName>*", substituting your own <AppName>. (Don't forget the asterisk wildcard.) The following will find WhatsApp, for example:

Get-AppxPackage -Name "*WhatsApp*"

If you still can't find it, enter the following in PowerShell and hit the spacebar to page through the output:

Get-AppxPackage * | more

Finally once you've formed the full application location identifier, use it in AutoHotkey like this:

Run "explorer.exe shell:AppsFolder\5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_cv1g1gvanyjgm!WhatsAppDesktop"

Note that this uses the AutoHotkey v2 syntax.

Answer 6

Tested on 27.10.2020 (and works)

• If you know turkish, check this site
• You can use this powershell script to find the command of store apps

$appName = Read-Host "App name"
$installedapps = get-AppxPackage
foreach ($app in $installedapps)
{
    foreach ($id in (Get-AppxPackageManifest $app).package.applications.application.id)
    {
        
        $line = $app.Name + " = " + $app.packagefamilyname + "!" + $id
        if ($line.IndexOf($appName, [System.StringComparison]::CurrentCultureIgnoreCase) -ge 0) {
            echo "shell:appsFolder\$app.packagefamilyname!$id" 
        }
    }
}

• To use it, first copy this script to notepad and select all recopy and paste to powershell console
• Example output for WhatsApp:

shell:appsFolder\5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_2.2041.7.0_x64__cv1g1gvanyjgm.packagefamilyname!WhatsAppDesktop

• Finally copy these command and use in AHK like

Run explorer.exe "shell:appsFolder\5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_2.2041.7.0_x64__cv1g1gvanyjgm.packagefamilyname!WhatsAppDesktop"

We need to copy to notepad to avoid powershell end of line issue (official bug) that makes line reserved

Answer 7

I just used my desktop shortcut (I couldn't find my system shortcut)

run C:\Users\YourUserName\Desktop\Minecraft Launcher.lnk

Answer 8

These are the right steps that work for me.

Get the app name. There are two ways:

Press Win+R keys, paste %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages, press Enter.

It should take you to Packages folder. Search the app name, then press F2, copy the folder name.

Sometimes the app name at the title bar you see when using it might be different with the folder name in. For example, Phone Link is the name which you can see at title bar, but its actual name is YourPhone.

In that case, we could use below method: Open PowerShell, enter Get-AppxPackage -Name "*app name*". For example

Tthe PackageFamilyName is what we are looking for.

Now combine the app name with shell:AppsFolder\app name!app. Use the example above, we can get shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.YourPhone_8wekyb3d8bbwe!app

You can validate it in PowerShell by start shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.YourPhone_8wekyb3d8bbwe!app. See if that will launch the app.

Then in your AutoHotkey script, you can do Run shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.YourPhone_8wekyb3d8bbwe!app

Answer 9

I noticed that I could launch an app with the Run command by typing its name. So for example, to launch a Windows Store app with spaces in its name, you could try something like:

Run, Files UWP - Preview

... where "Files UWP - Preview" could be any app's full name, as it is shown in the Start menu.

An advantage to this solution is that it doesn't rely on a shortcut that could potentially get deleted.