Okay, I m new to windows development. My task to build a small app which will run ONLY on windows 8.1 tablet. (NO app store, nothing like that)
After lots of research on Microsoft site, I am lost in the plethora of information and completely confused. e.g Microsoft says, surface tablet apps can be developed on windows vista/7. and then they say somewhere else that windows 8.1 apps can only be developed on windows 8.1 (or 8. I forgot) and I would need a developer license.
Questions:
1- is building apps for surface is different than building apps for windows phone?
2- I want to do it in WPF/c#. possible?
3- for an app running on ONLY windows 8.1 Surface tablet, what are hardware and software requirements? (including windows/ VS version etc.)
Learning something new isn't as issue. The issue is if im learning the Right thing which can help me achieve my task.
Please guide
Thanks in advance.
You will need a developer licence to debug locally on a machine.
You cannot install (sideload) apps onto a device that isn't developer registered, for consumer deployment, everything must come signed and through the store. You can override this is business and enterprise version of windows, but afaik this has to be done/deployed at an administrator level.
If you want to develop for windows 8.1, you need to be running 8.1, as deploying and debugging are done on the local machine, then optionally displayed in an emulator-like virtual session, there's no actual 'emulator' for desktop windows runtime apps.
Previously, yes, surface was winRT, and mobile was silverlight based. Now with the shared app platform the process is shared across the two, both are winRT and you can deploy one application across the two.
First you need to know that there are two types of apps for devices like Surface. The first one is desktop applications which are commonly referred as WPF Applications. The second one is Modern application commonly called Metro Apps.
The desktop applications can run windows 7/8.1/10 where as metro apps can only run on windows 8.1/10. If you want to build desktop apps you can build them on windows 7/8.1/10 using visual studio 2010/12/13/15, but if you want to build metro applications you need to build them on 8.1 using VS 2013 for windows 8.1, and for windows 10 you need to use windows 10 and vs 2015.
Your question is a bit confusing. If you want to build applications only for windows 8.1 tablet you need to build a metro app and only way to distribute the app is through the App store.
There are two main versions of Windows 8.1. RTM and rest of the versions(like home, pro etc.). Tablets running windows 8.1 RTM can not run all kinds of desktop apps. They only run metro apps. Hybrid tablets running windows home, pro or enterprise can run both desktop and metro apps.
If I am not mistaken surface pro 3 run windows 8.1 pro and can run both wpf and metro apps.
It depends. If you want to build WPF apps it is different from windows phone apps. If you want to build metro apps, it's not that different from WP Apps.
As I mentioned, surface pro 3 can run desktop apps. So WPF/C# apps are possible.
OS: windows 8.1 and visual studio 2013.
For further clarification, Check out the difference between different version of windows, and also differences between desktop and modern(metro) apps.
Starting points for WPF:
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/140611/WPF-Tutorial-Beginning
http://www.wpf-tutorial.com/
See Microsoft Developer Network MSDN
Microsoft Channel9 Tutorial Videos
Related
I've built a C# VS 2015 Forms App for Win10 but the customer would like version(s) for Win7 and Win8. I can download VS 2013 which should take care of Win8 but I am unsure what to so with for Win7. Apparently plenty of people till use Win7 in the music App world.
don't create windows universal app or windows metro app, just create windows Form application or WPF application using don.net framework 3.5. That will run every platform you have mentioned
I've got a small app that was built and shipped for Windows Phone 8.0. I need to publish a small update and I'm encountering all sorts of IDE bugs & missing classes/types when upgrading to VS2015/WP8.1 platform.
So, I'd like simply to keep the app at WP 8.0 but:
Question 1: Will this app run on WP 8.1 and Windows 10 phones?
Question 2: Will Microsoft's app store let me publish this update despite target platform being 8.0?
Firstly, Microsoft provides awesome backward compatibility when it comes to running your old OS apps on new devices. As per your question,
Yes, all your apps that were built to target windowsphone 8.0 OS will run successfully with no issues on all latest windows supported MOBILE devices.
I have tested my old Windowsphone 8.0 OS apps on latest windows 10 preview without any issues.
You can easily support your app with new updates based on windowsphone 8.0 OS. You will have no problem submitting your ( .xap ) packages on the new Windows 10 dashboard.
A large portion of windowsphone mobile devices ,the old lumias still don't have windows 10 yet so there is still a market for your apps. You don't have to consider your apps dead just because you belong to an older OS version.
You're encountering these missing types because Windows Phone 8.0 apps are written in Silverlight and Windows Phone 8.1 (on VS 2015) and Windows 10 are Windows Runtime apps. This is a different API, so some types are moved to other namespaces (most likely for small apps) or completely missing.
Your app should still run on WP 8.1/10 devices, although they might not scale perfectly to the newest screen ratios and will miss access to the newest features of these platforms.
For extra help on getting your app packaged and published, check this reply on another SO question.
I'm making a program for a Windows Surface Pro with Windows RT 8.1, but when I want to run the setup in it, it doesn't work. It says that the version of windows don't allows the application I'm trying to execute, but in Setup Wizard of Visual Studio 2012 I say that my application doesn't require any specific operating system. Which can be the solution
Thanks a lot.
You can't run Visual Studio on Windows RT.
I'm quoting a Microsoft employee here :
Only software written using the Windows Runtime (Metro style apps) can be used on Windows RT with the exception of Microsoft Office 2013 and the desktop version of Internet Explorer 10. Developers will not be able to create applications to run on Windows RT using the Win32 APIs
He answered that on a related topic in MSDN
i'm currently developing windows 8 Application using visual studio 2012 with C# and .Net.
I'm used template from visual studio 2012 (in new project -> Installed -> other template -> other languages -> visual C# -> window store -> blank app xaml)
then i execute it on the simulator (then windows tablet simulator appear), my question, can my application that i built can running on windows phone 7 or 8?
As xVir,suggested you cannot run a windows 8 app on a windows phone.
But you can use some strategies to maximise code reuse between the apps.
Separate UI and application logic using the MVVM pattern
Use Portable Class Libraries(PCL) to share functionalities
Share code with Add as Link
Share using Windows Runtime Components
Handling difference between WP8 and W8 platforms
For more info you can refer this Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 app development
No. It is different project types.
But you can share some common code between projects using libraries.
No, it doesn't work. windows phone is diffrent platforms. if you want to run same code on windows phone 8 and windows 8 you can use the portable classess.
I am working on VOIP app and build the sip library for Windows Phone 7.1 OS. IT is working fine when i run the project on any Windows 7.5 devices. But when i try to run the same project on WP8 device it not working well. It start giving me various exceptions like Null Pontere Refernce Exception in System.Windows.ni.dll . My understanding was if anything which is running fine in WIndows 7.5 device will work fine in Windows 8 device. Can anyone help what will be the possible reasons?
Here is an MSDN page that could interest you: App platform compatibility for Windows Phone.
In general, the Windows Phone app platform enables apps that target Windows Phone OS 7.1 to run without modification or
recompilation on Windows Phone 8.
[...]
There are other scenarios in which a Windows Phone OS 7.1 app may
behave differently when it runs on Windows Phone 8.