How to force Compatibility-mode for Windows 8 when ClickOnce application is executed

Question

I have a problem with a ClickOnce application I develop: on certain builds of Windows 10, the ClickOnce client is downloaded, executed by the .net framework but nothing is displayed.

It seems that if I go in the task manager, select the process, open the details, select the checkbox "Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows 8", it works fine.

As I don't want every client to perform this manipulation, I am looking for a way to force the ClickOnce client to execute with this compatibility mode for Windows 8 when it is started.

I checked the very little documentation, and changed the manifest of the application as this:

<compatibility xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:compatibility.v1">
<application>
  <!-- If your application is designed to work with Windows 8, uncomment the following supportedOS node-->
  <supportedOS Id="{4a2f28e3-53b9-4441-ba9c-d69d4a4a6e38}" />
</application>

I tested again, but the ClickOnce client is not started with the proper compatibility mode.

Is there a way to achieve what I want to do?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Someone from the Microsoft team supported me very efficiently on social.msdn, so I will report here the solution:

We need to change the registry to set a key=value, where - key is the path of the executable - value is "WIN8RTM".

In the clickonce application, before I start anything, I call the following function:

void ForceWin8RTM() {
try {
    RegistryKey^ key = Registry::CurrentUser->OpenSubKey("SoftWare\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\AppCompatFlags\\Layers", true);//Open the registry subkey
    System::String^ EXEName = System::Reflection::Assembly::GetExecutingAssembly()->Location;

    //If the item does not exist, create the sub-item 
    if (key == nullptr) 
    {
        key = Registry::CurrentUser->CreateSubKey("SoftWare\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\AppCompatFlags\\Layers");            
    }
    //If the value does not exist, set the value and restart the program to apply the setting
    if (key->GetValue(EXEName) == "" || key->GetValue(EXEName) == nullptr)
    {
        key->SetValue(EXEName, "WIN8RTM");
        Application::Restart();
    }
} catch(Exception^ e) {
}

}

Here is the link of the thread on msdn : https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/056c7bf1-797f-4af7-83e2-d88b979e58a6/how-to-force-compatibilitymode-for-windows-8-whenclickonce-application-is-executed?forum=winformssetup