Windows universal "package name" best practices?

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I am working on a Windows Universal application.

In the editor for Package.appxmanifest, on the Packaging tab, there is a Package name field. In the XML editor, this field is stored in the /Package/Identity@Name attribute.

Initially, this is filled in, by Visual Studio, with an auto-generated GUID. What are the best practices for this field? What is the exact usage / meaning for this field?

Should I leave it alone? Or, should I change it to a "friendly" name? If I change it to a friendly name, are there any conventions I should honor (e.g. the com.companyname.applicationname convention used elsewhere)?

I'll happily accept links to any authoritative guidance from MS on this topic :)

What I have tried:

I searched for information on this topic, and found many links, but the advice was contradictory.

Some recommended changing it to a "friendly" name, with little advice about appropriate values.

Others recommend leaving it alone.

I wasn't able to find any authoritative source to break the tie.

Posted 16-Nov-18 1:44am

Eric Lynch

Updated 16-Nov-18 4:57am

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Eric Lynch · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-16T04:57:00

Solution 1

Answering my own question...after writing a quick program to look at the manifests for all of the UWP applications installed on my computer, I found that companies usually change it to a friendly name. While not quite a convention, I also found that the most common practice (generally by Microsoft) seems to be:

companyname.applicationname

So, I'll go with that.

UPDATE: Thanks to Richard MacCutchan for the official MS stance:

How to create a basic package manifest for Windows 8 - UWP app developer | Microsoft Docs[^]

Posted 16-Nov-18 4:57am

Eric Lynch

Updated 16-Nov-18 6:53am

v2

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Richard MacCutchan 16-Nov-18 11:02am

As also described in How to create a basic package manifest for Windows 8 - UWP app developer | Microsoft Docs[^]

Eric Lynch 16-Nov-18 12:48pm

Cool, thank you for the confirmation. I swear I Googled my brains out, but still didn't find that link :)

If you'd been a bit quicker you could have saved me writing a program, out of desperation, to find what other folks were doing.

FWIW, adherence to this convention is spotty at best. Almost all of my installed UWP apps are from Microsoft, but I still found three vendors who ignored it.

The most notable exception was Twitter...which reminds me, I need to do a better audit for bloatware :)