UWP apps are set to become much more useful with Startup support in Windows 10 FCU

Microsoft introduced a major new feature in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, and it nearly slipped by without us noticing.

Starting with build 16226 of the Windows 10 FCU developers were able to request UWP apps load at Start-up. This feature was already available to Project Centennial apps with Full Trust, but will be a fully managed feature for UWP apps within the usual UWP security container.

This also means for example that the app will not be able to add itself to startup without asking the user permission on first run (unlike Project Centennial apps) and that they can only set one main and one background process to start up.

The development is great news and a real example of the expansion of the API surface for UWP apps. This would, for example, allow developers making messaging apps to ensure their app is always running in the background without requiring the user to launch it first and enable a large number of scenarios, such as UWP apps that are voice assistants or wallpaper flippers etc.

In Windows 10 FCU users will still need to use the Task Manager to manage their Startup apps, but Windows 10 RS4 will introduce a new Settings page which would allow users to directly enable or disable Startup functionality.

Developers looking to add this feature can read more about it in Microsoft’s blog post here.