Fans of UWP apps on Windows 10 have some good times ahead. It has been announced that starting in Redstone 4, developers will be allowed to opt-in to a behavior supporting running multiple instances of some UWP apps at the same time (via Neowin.)
Microsoft dives into the technical details on their blog, pointing out how developers can code the multi-instance feature into their apps. “If an instance of a multi-instance UWP app is running and if a subsequent activation request comes through, the platform will not activate the existing instance. Instead, it will create a new instance, running in a separate process,” writes the Redmond giant.
Developers are being urged to keep in mind multi-instancing is only supported by UWP apps that target desktop and Internet of Things (IoT) projects. It also is important to note that background audio tasks or apps do not support multi-instancing. The feature was already present in some stock Microsoft apps like OneNote, and was also already present in recent Windows Insider builds targetting the latest Windows SDK, but only now is Microsoft detailing the templates.
Multiple instances of UWP apps is just one of the topics discussed in the latest Windows Comunity Standup with Microsoft’s Kevin Gallo. You can see it in action here by checking the video here on Demand at around the 10-minute mark.
