How To Sideload A Windows Store App For Testing

Sideload.txt

First on the developer side:

1. Open your solution in VisualStudio.
2. Select the menu item "Project -> Store -> Create App Packages...".
3. At the first question "Do you want to build packages to upload to the Windows Store?" select "No" and hit "Next".
4. On the next page the defaults are usually fine, but change the output location if you like.
5. Go to the output location.
6. Zip the folder that ends in "_Test" and share it with testers.


Next when sideloading to a device (even a WinRT device):

1. Make sure to uninstall previous store versions of the app first.
2. Unzip the file from the desktop.
3. Right click on the "Add-AppDevPackage.ps1" file and select "Run with Powershell".
4. Powershell will ask you a few scary questions and popup different windows.  Read carefully and accept them all to install.
5. After the Powershell script completes the app can be launched from the Start screen.

Enjoy!