Windows 8.1 APPX developer license not detected by Visual Studio

[PANCHO7532]

The license is correctly applied and I can sideload apps manually via PowerShell, but Visual Studio just refuses to pick up the license and still tries to contact Microsoft for a new license, currently I'm using Visual Studio 2015 (with Update 3), happens as well on Windows 8.1 Pro

Is it solvable? It'd be cool for Visual Studio to pick up the license as it can be useful for developing/debugging metro apps on the same machine

[thecatontheceiling]

Which Visual Studio version is that? None of us have tried using the developer license like this before so I can't really help

[PANCHO7532]

Which Visual Studio version is that? None of us have tried using the developer license like this before so I can't really help

It's Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise (with Update 3)

Tried as well with the Community version when I had 8.1 pro installed on the VM but it's the same

[abbodi1406]

The appx add-on is sideloading key that allow to install the sideloading apps

developer license is different, it's a store (app) license
and Win 8/8.1 store (ws.microsoft.com domain and update service) were shutdown since June 30, 2023

try if these group policies helps:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-8.1-and-8/hh852635(v=win.10)#to-configure-your-enterprise-pcs-with-a-developer-license

[PANCHO7532]

I already have those enabled, still Visual Studio won't let it through

[abbodi1406]

I guess no solution then
or maybe try on Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Enterprise, or regular Enterprise

[PANCHO7532]

I guess no solution then or maybe try on Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Enterprise, or regular Enterprise

Still the same on Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Enterprise...

If the license required for this to work is different than the one required for sideloading, is there a chance that MAS could support it at some point? Or it uses a completely different scheme?

[abbodi1406]

We don't know the content of the license, and store license is temp signed with unknown private key

[thecatontheceiling]

So do I close this? Not sure if this is possible to implement support for in MAS.

[PANCHO7532]

Sorry got sidetracked on some stuff and couldn't reply to this thread lately but anyway I'll share some findings

We don't know the content of the license, and store license is temp signed with unknown private key

Actually some guy on reddit shared more-or-less the license response from the activation servers on microsoft: https://www.reddit.com/r/windows8/comments/17cw4l2/comment/kcshxxb/ theoretically it is possible to playback the response using Fiddler to re-enable a machine to be "developer approved", but haven't had the time to get into it as it seems to require to put Windows at some arbitrary date/time, maybe could be useful in some way? ¯_ (ツ)_/¯

While digging a bit more Visual Studio requests the license status via WSClient.dll, modifying said binary and patching AcquireDeveloperLicense and CheckDeveloperLicense to return a successful code made the license prompt dissapear, but unfortunately it can see through my lies upon trying to debug any app :P

WSClient.dll requires sppc.dll so maybe a solution like a modified Ohook built to this specific scenario might possibly do the trick? It can probably be done on MAS by making a shim of WSClient.dll

Otherwise I'm not really sure how it can be done