Windows App#
A Windows app is a stub binary, allow with a collection of folders taht contain the Python code for the app and the Python runtime libraries.
Briefcase uses the WiX Toolset to build an MSI installer for a Windows App. WiX, in turn, requires that .NET Framework 3.5 is enabled. To ensure .NET Framework 3.5 is enabled:
Open the Windows Control Panel
Traverse to Programs -> Programs and Features
Select “Turn Windows features On or Off”
Ensure that “.NET framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)” is selected.
Icon format#
Windows apps installers use multiformat .ico
icons; these icons should
contain images in the following sizes:
16px
32px
48px
64px
256px
Splash Image format#
Windows Apps do not support splash screens or installer images.
Application configuration#
The following options can be added to the
tool.briefcase.app.<appname>.windows
section of your pyproject.toml
file.
system_installer
#
Controls whether the app will be installed as a per-user or per-machine app. Per-machine apps are “system” apps, and require admin permissions to run the installer; however, they are installed once and shared between all users on a computer.
If true
the installer will attempt to install the app as a per-machine app,
available to all users. If false
, the installer will install as a per-user
app. If undefined the installer will ask the user for their preference.
version_triple
#
Python and Briefcase allow any valid PEP440 version number as a version
specifier.
However, MSI installers require a strict integer triple version number. Many
PEP440-compliant version numbers, such as “1.2”, “1.2.3b3”, and “1.2.3.4”, are
invalid for MSI installers.
Briefcase will attempt to convert your version
into a valid MSI value by
extracting the first three parts of the main series version number (excluding
pre, post and dev version indicators), padding with zeros if necessary:
1.2
becomes1.2.0
1.2b4
becomes1.2.0
1.2.3b3
becomes1.2.3
1.2.3.4
becomes1.2.3
.
However, if you need to override this default value, you can define
version_triple
in your app settings. If provided, this value will be used
in the MSI configuration file instead of the auto-generated value.