Hello,
I want to sideload a Microsoft Store App to a Lenovo Thinkpad 2 device. The device has an OEM / retail version of Windows 8.1 Pro installed and is part of an active directory domain network.

With this preconditions and according to announcements by Microsoft, it seems to be possible since May 2014 to deploy Apps directly to these devices. Without the need to buy a sideloading key.

To check this, I have generated an code signing certificate with makecert/Pvk2Pfx and then I followed the instructions in this blog article.

Everything went fine, only the actual deployment with add-appxPackage didn't work. The installation aborts with the error message, that a developer or sideloading license is required, as no license or sideloading policy can be applied.

Can anybody in this forum give me some advice to these questions:

1. Does the new sideload licensing model for May 2014 also applies to OEM/retail versions of Windows 8.1, or is is volume licensing required?

2. Has anybody managed to successfully sideload an App to a OEM / retail Windows 8.1 Pro device?

3. At the moment I don't have access to the domain network. I can login with a domain user locally but changes to the local group policies and to the local certificate stores can't be confirmed by the domain controller. I'm not an administrator, so might this be a source of error?

Thanks

Tobias

Hello Tobias,

Please check if you can normally sideload Windows Store App in other domain-joined OEM computer.

About the OEM issue, it is recommended to contact the manufacturer.

Best regards,
Fangzhou CHEN