How To Start Windows Store Apps in AutoHotKey? - windows-10

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

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.