c2i Package Explorer is a free sofware which allow you to learn more about applications (packages) installed on your computer. With c2iPackageExplorer:

• you will known when an application has been updated (remember, with windows 8.1, update are made silently by default),
• you will know what are the size of your applications (software + user datas),
• you will know which software use this and those kind of capabilities/extensions/contracts,
• and much more.

Current version: 1.6.0.0 (2014-01-08)

Main interface

A: Main ribbon.
B: List panel. Display the list of the packages. Can be grouped by capabilities or extensions.
C: Detail panel. Display a treemap of the package (by size) or the details about the selected package.
D: Status bar. Display the version of the application, number of installed packages, total size of the installed packages (software + user data), number of help links and a progressbar indicating when the application is doing something (and what).

1. Refresh. Search again for your installed packages. By default, packages in List panel are sorted by event (if a package has been updated, it will appear at the top of the list).
2. Sort by event. List panel is ordered by installation event, most recent events at the top. This means that newer package are at the top of the list.
3. Sort by name. Any explication needed? ;-)
4. Sort by size. Size of the package (the software) and the user datas (in ...\AppData\Local\Packages\PackageFolder).
5. Group by capabilities. List is grouped by the sofware capability (for example all package which needs an internet connection).
6. Group by extensions. List is grouped by extensions/contracts (for example all package which implement Search protocol).
7. You can search a package with its display name.
8. Refresh Help links. As you will see further, help links are internet links where you can find articles about a specific item (for example about search protocol). Those help links are saved in our database and are downloaded at the start of the application. You can download this list again with this button.
9. Check update. When the application start, it check if there is a newer version which has been published. You can check again with this button later.
10. Full window buttons. Hide/Show the list panel.

Group by capabilities

Details

When you select a package, you have more informations about it. Most informations are retreived from the manifest of the package. In the extensions view, for packages declaring protocol, you can test it (most of the time, it only launch the app).

In the settings view, you can see what are the content of local and roaming settings. Even if datas are stored in a ApplicationDataCompositeValue, you can see its content.

In the folders view, you can navigate directly to the folder where the package is installed (Program Files\WindowsApps\appFolderXXX) and to the user datas folder.

At least, you can launch the package (using the Launch button in the ribbon) or navigate to the Windows Store application page (if available - ie not a dev app).

New in v1.4: Manage state & spy folder

New in v1.4, you can now manage the state of a package. In the ribbon, you can Resume/Suspend/Terminate the package (depend of it's current state).

You can also spy the changes in user folders by clicking on the button Activate new Spy Button. Usefull to know what happen when you suspend or terminate an app.

New in v1.6.0.0: Clean Internet Cache

With Internet Explorer, you can specify the maximum volume of your Internet cache and clean it. It is not possible with Windows Store applications. For each package, Windows manage it's own folder and can store thousand of Mb. This is especially true for streaming applications (radios for example). With c2iPackageExplorer, you can now clean this cache:

Community

First of all, we created this app to learn more about packages installation and we wanted to share this "little knowledge". Everything is available in MSDN but it's quite difficult to find easily the exact information you need at the right time. So we decided to create a small database where we will store interesting links. Those "Help links" are contextuals and are avalaible when you see the blue link picture. Clicking on it and you'll see this:

There is 2 kinds of links: reference means Microsoft links (MSDN). Community are interesting articles.

You can participate to this database by clicking on the "Suggest a link" hyperlink.

Credits

Click on the help button on the top right of the ribbon. We would like to thank's people how help us creating this app.

1. Telerik: you create fantastic controls,
2. Laurent Bugnion for it's MVVM Light framework (we use it every day on every apps we create ;-)),
3. Jeffrey Ritcher and Maarten van de Bospoort for the "Windows Runtime via C#" book. As always, an excellent book where you can find an app which is similar to c2i Package Explorer (but we must said we have the idea to create it before reading this book ;-)).
4. People how tested our app: Laurent Ellerbach, Christopher Maneu, Christophe Nasarre, Cédric Tallichet, Stéphane Torres. Sorry if we forgot someone.
5. We also use WIX for the installation program

Source

Source of this app will be available soon here.

At least

It's free, you can use it as you want, for any purpose. We only hope you will enjoy it and that it will be usefull for your futurs developments.

NB: sorry for our "english" which is far from perfect ;-)

Richard Clark.

Current version: 1.6.0.0 (2014-01-08)

Release history

2014-01-08: v1.6.0.0

Ability to clean Internet cache by package. New design of the ribbon when a package is selected.

2013-12-26: v1.5.0.0

Bug fix at start.

2013-12-20: v1.4.5.0

Group packages by state (running, suspended, terminated, etc.). Start optimisation.

2013-12-17: v1.4.0.0

Spy folders (in folders tab) and ability to terminate/suspend/resume a package.
All text in english.
Windows 8.0 compatibility.

2013-12-13: v1.2.0.0

Initial official release.

If you like c2i Package Explorer, perharps you'll like our Windows 8 apps.