How to Test Your Windows 8 App Before Submitting to the Store

It’s always a good idea to test your application before submitting it to the store. The Windows Application Certification Kit (WACK) tool can save you from failing the early automated tests.

The first thing you’ll want to do is uninstall any existing build of your application. This is important because the WACK tool may fail if a previous debug build is still installed on the system. To uninstall your app, find it on the Start experience, right-click and choose ‘Uninstall’.

Next, make sure to change the project build to ‘Release’ instead of ‘Debug’. This can be done from the Visual Studio toolbar.

Now, under the Debug menu, clean and then rebuild the solution.

After the build completes, right-click on the project in the Solution Explorer window and choose Store –> Create app packages…

When prompted if you want to build the app for the store, say no.

When the app packages are finished building you’ll be presented with the option to run the certification kit.

If this option isn’t available, double-check that your project was actually built as ‘Release’ and not ‘Debug’.

Before you launch the App Certification Kit, close down other programs and set aside about 5 minutes for it to run. As the screen reminds you, when you see your app appear on the screen do not interact with it.

When the tests are done, if all is well you’ll see a successful report like the one below.