The Package Support Framework (PSF) was originally a Microsoft open-source project to help Win32/DotNet applications run when inside an MSIX Container. TMurgent has taken up the support for the PSF in our own fork here on GitHub.
Version v.2025.08.02 has been released on GitHub. The changes include the following:
- Small cleanups in RegLegacyFixup for edge conditions.
- Changes in MfrFixup to improve support in FileSystemWriteVirtualization scenario with calls to GetFileAttributes/Ex
- Add logging support (only) for DeviceIoControl to MfrFixup in Debug mode. We need to determine if an intercept is needed for this API.
- Change in DynamicLibraryFixup for an unusual case where LoadLibraryEx is called with a special option to ignore the path provided for the dll and only look in the search folders.
- Reduced some debug logging in MfrFixup and RegLegacyFixup to reduce the amount of output.
- Applied fix to logging to solve potential issue with messages exceeding 1024 characters in length.
- Adjustments for wide/narrow versions of data structure used in FindFirstFileA/W to avoid constantly converting string types.
- Ensure FindFirstFile returns file not found over path not found in MfrFixup. Also ensure SetLastError is set appropriately before returning as some apps look at this rather than the return code.
- Phase 1 work (conditionally disabled) to add additional folders to the redirect to local redirection in MfrFixup.
Currently only the Documents and Desktop folders do this to allow outside applications to access files outside of the package from their natural location.
We are investigating the possibility of adding additional folders to this list, including Downloads, Pictures, Videos, and Music.
Expect this feature to be enabled in a future release.
This version of the PSF will be included in the following known toolings:
- PsfTooling, a release greater than 6.14
- TMEditX, a release greater than 6.0
For those unaware, PSF stands for Package Support Framework, an open-source utility that I contribute to for helping traditional Win32 and DotNet applications run inside the MSIX packaging container. This article contains information regarding new contributions.
