PACE Suite 6.3: Services in MSIX & Quick MSI/App-V to MSIX Conversion

The latest 6.3 release of PACE Suite is a powerful software update designed for more efficient application packaging and effortless transition of the legacy MSI/App-V to MSIX. We also implemented significant changes to the user interface for a smoother packaging experience.

Support of Windows Services in MSIX

From now on, PACE Suite supports Windows Services in MSIX packages that streamline the migration of complex legacy applications to MSIX.

With Windows Services support included, you can:

• Easily save Windows Services to the manifest file when creating an MSIX package in Package Generator.
• View and edit Services of the package opened in MSIX Editor
• Effortlessly track changes with clear highlighting rules and Undo-Redo history for better control and visibility.

Quick Conversion of MSI/App-V to MSIX

As Microsoft officially announced the end-of-life for App-V format on April 14, 2026, it is essential to migrate from App-V to MSIX. MSI packages can be quickly converted to MSIX.

The standard approach for converting MSI/App-V to MSIX packages is manual app repackaging, which is time-consuming and requires in-depth knowledge. Instead, PACE Suite 6.3 offers automatic quick conversion for MSI/App-V to MSIX, which takes 1-2 minutes for the mid-size packages. The conversion wizard performs conversion in three steps:

• Extracts resources such as file, registry, shortcuts, COM, etc., from the selected MSI/App-V package
• Creates the Package Generator’s project and imports all the resources into it
• Builds the MSIX package

You only need to specify the package location and signature parameters and wait a bit until the wizard finishes the conversion process.

New Launcher

As the features of PACE Suite have been significantly extended and new features have been added since the last release, we have designed a new PACE Suite Launcher to navigate through all the functionalities and find necessary features easier.

We restructured the Launcher menu more logically, with all the features clearly visualized. A user can also add the most used features to the Favorites menu to have them always at hand. Similarly, all the latest involved tasks and opened files are now located in Recent lists for quick access.

The new Launcher is available in both Light and Dark themes.

New MSIX Fixups

In PACE Suite 6.3, we have extended the list of Package Support Framework Fixups for MSIX packages.

The new Fixups include:

• Environment Variable Fixup: It helps set Environment Variables for packaged applications that are unable to run due to not finding Environment Variables.
• Registry Legacy Fixup: It helps run packaged applications that are unable to launch due to requesting unnecessary parameters in Registry calls. The common issue indicator is “Access Is Denied” error.

Other Improvements

Within the 6.3 release, we significantly improved the PACE Suite’s usability, explicitly enhancing the user interface, menus, and overall user experience. More minor yet useful changes include:

• Integration into Windows 11 context menu: now you can find the PACE Suite functions in the context menu of the files of all associated formats like *.msix, *.appx, *.msi, *.mst, etc.
• New Home screen: now you can quickly start working with the recent files or find the New/Open function right from the MSI Editor and Package Generator home screens.
• Improved UI/UX for managing PowerShell Fixup in Package Generator.
• 20+ technical fixes for error-free application packaging.

Explore the full list of enhancements in PACE Suite release notes and master all the new features from the User Guide.