MSIX: How to achieve automatic install of .net 5 required for my application?

Question

I wrote a WPF program using .NET 5, packed it into the MSIX bundle (Release, x86 and x64) as a framework-dependent package. Everything seems fine, but there is one very annoying thing: on the first run the app says ".NET runtime is missing, would you like to install it?”. If you click yes, the download page opens, where the user has to select the needed runtime, download, and install it. Not the best user experience, I'm thinking about how to improve it.

Is there an option to add .net 5 runtimes (x86 or x64 depending on the user system, or maybe both) as a dependency so it installed automatically?

I know I can define dependencies, but how can I find the right name for the needed dependency?

Also, I know it's possible to define custom install action but I haven't tried it yet, because I want to find a simpler solution. Looks like for that option I'll have to create a small app or script that will check if the needed runtime exists and if not - check the platform and ask the user to install the specific version of the runtime. Not the best user experience too.

Of course, I still have an option to go with self-contained, but I don't want to distribute so many megabytes of .net every time, especially given the fact that I expect frequent updates.

Answer 1

Luckily, I got an answer on techcommunity.microsoft.com

Thanks to Matteo Pagani:

if it's an application based on .NET Core / .NET 5 (as I seem to understand from the description), the suggested and best way to distribuite via MSIX is to use the self-deployment approach. Thanks to MSIX features like differential updates and single disk instance, you don't have to worry too much about the increased size, since the runtime will be downloaded only at the first install.

Dependencies are not a good fit because there are no packages for .net 5 yet.

Custom install actions are possible but more complicated, so I decided to go with self-contained.