Fortunately, as a Windows phone user, you are no longer at a disadvantage in terms of getting 3rd party apps or sideloading apps to your wp. In this tutorial, I will be discussing with precision how you can Side-load .xap Windows Apps to your Windows 8.1/8 phones.
Occasionally, users of Windows Phones running OS 8.1 may have to install a program or game on their smartphone running Windows Phone 8.1 Os. This often is the case especially when you don’t have stable/high-speed internet. A typical situation, for example, is when there is no wireless Wi-Fi connection at home, and you do not have a huge data plan on the Windows phone in which you want to install the app.
In such instances, downloading programs via mobile connection can be too long and unreasonably expensive. Therefore, it’s better to download the necessary application or game to your computer and install it on your smartphone as a local file in XAP format.
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How to Side-load .xap Windows Apps on Windows Phones 8.1
To install XAP programs your Window phone should have support for an external SD card. Needless to say that you need a sufficient amount of free space. In addition, you will need a computer with access to the Internet, with which you will download the programs from the ” Windows Phone Store“. If all the necessary conditions are met, then follow the next steps.
Side-load .xap Windows Apps: Step 1
– On your main computer or laptop, open the application directory for Windows Phone.
– Select the program that you want to install, and go to its page in the directory.
– Scroll down the page to the bottom. Here, under the system requirements and supported languages, you will find the link “Download and install manually”.
– Save the installation file of the necessary program in any convenient place on the hard disk.
– Now, Connect your smartphone to your computer via a USB connection.
– Transfer the downloaded XAP file to the SD card. You can do this using a system file manager, for example, Windows Explorer or Nautilus in Ubuntu.
Step 2: Side-load .xap Windows Apps
After copying the installation file to your smartphone memory card, you can disconnect the device from the computer. Next, open the “Store” program and select “Local applications” from the additional menu (three points). Here, you can only mark the required items and click the “Install” button.
Noteworthy, this tutorial is only useful for those programs that you downloaded from the official Windows Phone application catalogue. All the applications installed in the manner described above behave in the same way as those installed directly from the store. Consequently, they can be automatically updated in case of new versions. Finally, as for paid programs, they can also be installed according to the instructions given above, but their full use will be possible only after payment.
Method 2: how to install .xap file in windows phone 8 with an SD Card
First Step: Copy all the .xap files which you want to install in your Windows 8 phone to your SD card.
Second Step: Now go to Start -> Store -> SD card and wait for a few minutes for all the .xap files to be loaded.
STEP 3: Next, Select the app which you want to install -> Select the Install option.
STEP 4: If your apps are compatible then you can see them in the Compatible apps list if not it will be shown in the Incompatible apps list.
Final Step: Once you have successfully installed the apps, you can see those apps listed in the Apps list from the start.
mr lemmy, pls i want u to confirm for me hw much it will cost me to replace my broken lumia 540 screen. thank u
@Abdul: I will advise you to goto a qualified technician especially in Lagos computer village