Executing Commands in an Appx Context Via Invoke-CommandInDesktopPackage

README.md

Invoke-CommandInDesktopPackage

You can execute commands in the context of an AppX Package to gain access to it's virtualized resources (example virtualized registry keys or files)

Docs

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/appx/invoke-commandindesktoppackage?view=windowsserver2022-ps

Example

The Invoke-CommandInDesktopPackage cmdlet requires 3 mandatory arguments: -AppId, -Command and -PackageFamilyName.

• The -Command falg can be any command we want to excute.
• In order to obtain the PackageFamilyName we can execute Get-AppxPackage with the package name. For example we can for the Calculator package:

Get-AppxPackage *calc*

Name              : Microsoft.WindowsCalculator
Publisher         : CN=Microsoft Corporation, O=Microsoft Corporation, L=Redmond, S=Washington, C=US
Architecture      : X64
ResourceId        :
Version           : 11.2210.0.0
PackageFullName   : Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_11.2210.0.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
InstallLocation   : C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_11.2210.0.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
IsFramework       : False
PackageFamilyName : Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_8wekyb3d8bbwe
PublisherId       : 8wekyb3d8bbwe
IsResourcePackage : False
IsBundle          : False
IsDevelopmentMode : False
NonRemovable      : False
Dependencies      : {Microsoft.UI.Xaml.2.8_8.2212.15002.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe, Microsoft.NET.Native.Framework.2.2_2.2.29512.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe,
                    Microsoft.NET.Native.Runtime.2.2_2.2.28604.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe, Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00_14.0.30704.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe...}
IsPartiallyStaged : False
SignatureKind     : Store
Status            : Ok

• To obtain the AppId we need a to query the application manifest. We can do so by using the Get-AppxPackageManifest cmdlet and providing it with the PackageFullName

$(Get-AppxPackageManifest $(Get-AppxPackage *calc*).PackageFullName).Package.Applications.Application.Id

Merging all of this and the final query will look like this

Get-AppxPackage *calc* | % { Invoke-CommandInDesktopPackage -Command cmd.exe -PreventBreakaway -PackageFamilyName $_.PackageFamilyName -AppId $((Get-AppxPackageManifest $_.PackageFullName).Package.Applications.Application.id) }

This new process will have some additional attributes in it's token:

• WIN://SYSAPPID
• WIN://PKG
• WIN://PKGHOSTID