Glossary

Glossary

A quick reference for the terms you will meet throughout this wiki. Understanding these makes the rest of the guides far easier to follow.

Developer Mode (Dev Mode)

An official Microsoft feature that switches a retail Xbox into a sandboxed development environment. In this mode you can sideload and run your own apps. It is fully reversible and exists alongside the normal retail mode.

UWP (Universal Windows Platform)

The app format Xbox and Windows share. Homebrew and emulators for Xbox are packaged as UWP apps, which is why projects like RetroArch can be deployed to the console at all.

Device Portal

A web-based control panel hosted by your Xbox while in Dev Mode. You open it from a browser on your PC using the console's IP address. It is where you upload, install, launch, and manage your sideloaded apps.

Sideload

Installing an app from outside the official Microsoft Store. In Dev Mode you sideload UWP packages through the Device Portal rather than buying them from the Store.

Sandbox

The isolated container Dev Mode apps run inside. The sandbox separates developer software from your retail system and games, and it enforces restrictions such as limited file access and a per-app memory cap.