UWP .NET 9 Support?

[myokeeh]

References: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/ifdef-windows/preview-uwp-support-for-dotnet-9-native-aot/

GA of New UWP .NET 9 project templates 📣: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/releases/2022/release-notes#desktop

I've stuck to 4.60.4 since that's the last version that supported my UWP apps. Now that I can update my UWP apps to .NET 9, am I able to use the latest versions again?

I get an exception with the following message with any version higher than 4.60.4.

Only loopback redirect uri is supported, but https://[redacted].azurewebsites.net/.auth/login/done was found. Configure http://localhost or http://localhost:port both during app registration and when you create the PublicClientApplication object. See https://aka.ms/msal-net-os-browser for details

If I specify the http://localhost redirect URI, I get the following popup:

---------------------------
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe
---------------------------
Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.
---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

[myokeeh]

To add, with the UWP converted to .NET 9 and using version 4.60.4, I now get a "Access is denied. (0x80070005 (E_ACCESSDENIED))" exception so unable to use MSAL at all.

msalar = await pca.AcquireTokenInteractive(scopes)
                   .WithTenantId(tenantId)
                   .WithAccount(user)
                   .WithExtraScopesToConsent(graphscopes)
                   .ExecuteAsync();

[ashok672]

UWP is no longer supported. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/identity/uwp-xamarin-msal-net-deprecation/. Recommendations to migrate from UWP is mentioned in this link.

[charlesroddie]

The recommendations are not sensible and are in fact a security risk for end-users since WinUI does not support anything except full trust mode properly.

Overall I am concluding that MSAL is very tied to Microsoft policies and puts little weight on user needs. It's like dealing with an uncooperative IT department.

We deploy on all platforms and nothing is without problems:

• Windows: UWP not supported
• Mac: catalyst not supported
• IOS & Android: works but gives many trimming warnings (more than all our other dependencies put together)

The API is also poor since you need to know the inner workings to understand how to use across platforms, and add different incantations depending on which platform you are deploying to.

The solution is probably to use openid connect using https://docs.duendesoftware.com/foss/identitymodel/ .

[austinbhale]

@ashok672 - For those of us still required to support UWP, simply "moving on" isn’t always an option. It’d be more helpful to acknowledge those constraints rather than assume migration is always feasible.

@myokeeh - I just ran into this same issue after modernizing my codebase and came up with a quick workaround that might help:

• Forked and checked out tag 4.60.3
• Applied minimal changes to support net6.0-windows10.0.17763 with the prior UAP implementations. Here's the changelog: https://github.com/AzureAD/microsoft-authentication-library-for-dotnet/compare/4.60.3...Nakamir-Code:microsoft-authentication-library-for-dotnet:uwp/net9-support?expand=1
• Built and packed via Visual Studio

Hope this helps anyone in a similar situation. So far, the .NET 9 UWP preview support has been working well for me!

[myokeeh]

@austinbhale not sure how to make use of this. Any pointers for me?

[myokeeh]

@ashok672 is it possible for your team to reevaluate making this available?

[arek-corp]

Has anyone tried MSAL with custom UI implementation for this?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity-platform/scenario-desktop-acquire-token-interactive?tabs=dotnet#withcustomwebui

[Medality]

UWP is no longer supported. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/identity/uwp-xamarin-msal-net-deprecation/. Recommendations to migrate from UWP is mentioned in this link.

That decision was made before modern .NET added support for UWP. Also, technically, it was about the uap10.0.17763 target. Now that UWP is in the same ballpark as WinForms, WPF and WinUI, we'd need a net9.0-windows10.0.xxxxx target!
So I'd be glad if the MSAL team could consider supporting UWP just like any other Microsoft-supported framework.
That would be of great benefit for those like me who migrate their UWP app to .NET 9.
Thanks!

[myokeeh]

I was finally able to build it with @austinbhale's changes.

[TheJoeFin]

Coming back to this thread. @ashok672 what is the incompatibility with UWP on .NET 9? Is it the AppContainer? If so does that mean that WinAppSDK apps using that technology are also not supported?