Windows 8 introduces a new type of application: the Windows Store app. Windows Store apps have a brand new look and feel, run on a variety of devices, and you sell them on the Windows Store.
After you install Windows 8, go to Downloads for developers, find the Download tools and SDK heading, and click the Download now button.
This download gives you Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8, Blend for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 for Windows 8, the Windows 8 software development kit (SDK), and project templates for creating new Windows Store apps.
Visual Studio gives you everything you need to create code, debug, localize, package, and deploy a Windows Store app.
Blend is another tool you can use to create Windows Store apps. It provides effective support for designing a great-looking user interface for your Windows Store app.
Visual Studio and Blend were designed to work together. You can move seamlessly back and forth between them to develop your app.
A developer license for Windows 8 lets you install, develop, test, and evaluate Windows Store apps before the Windows Store tests and certifies them. Developer licenses are free, and you can get as many as you need if you already have a Microsoft account. You don’t need a Store account to get a developer license, but there might be advantages to having this kind of account. For example, you qualify for a longer developer license if you have a Windows Store account.
If you know DirectX, you can develop a DirectX Windows Store app using native C++ and HLSL to take full advantage of graphics hardware.
This section provides basic tutorials and procedures for getting started with DirectX app development.
Windows Store apps with C++
A Windows Store app with DirectX is an app developed using native C++ and DirectX APIs that have been made available to the Windows Runtime.This model is more complex than the usual Windows Store app, but it provides greater flexibility and greater access to system resources, especially graphics devices. So, it is a good model for the experienced developer.
Why develop a Windows Store app with C++?
The answer is simple: you want to make a game that is graphics- or multimedia-intensive, and can use the features that many graphics devices support. This won't be easy if you are new to game development or to Windows development and C/C++, but there's some good news: this is the simplest and most cohesive version of Microsoft DirectX yet -- and the most powerful and feature-rich. If your goal is to master game development and learn the most advanced techniques, then DirectX can provide the opportunity for you.
That said, planning your game is essential. If you are new to game development, and your game doesn't have demanding graphics requirements, consider developing it as a usual Windows Store app instead. Also, many "middleware" graphics and game development packages are available for Windows platforms, and some do not require significant programming skills.
If you are confident, or simply have a dream of making a game with high-fidelity graphics (or an app with complex graphics content), then read on!
Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 is a collection of tools that you can use to create, code, debug, localize, package, and deploy a Windows Windows Store app. In short, Visual Studio can help you do just about anything you need to do to develop a Windows Store app.
If you haven't used Visual Studio before, take a quick look around before you start writing code. Visual Studio has a lot of parts, but you don't need to know all about them to get started. After describing the basic steps of setting up a new project, we take a look at the Code Editor and other Visual Studio features.
Important
- If you haven't installed Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8 yet, go here to download and install the tools.
- Windows Store app development in Visual Studio is supported only on Windows 8. Windows 7 is not supported. In addition, developer licenses aren't available for Windows Server 2012, so you can't develop Windows Store apps on that operating system.
Templates provide a starting point to help you create Windows Store apps. Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8 and Blend for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 for Windows 8 come with a variety of project templates and item templates to help you develop your app faster. The topics in this section describe these project templates and item templates.
The choice of which template to start with depends on what sort of app or game you want to create. See Planning Windows Store apps for guidance on planning your app.
Blend for Visual Studio 2012 helps you design and build user interfaces by providing you with an accurate design surface and tools that let you visually create and edit Windows Store applications. These new design tools take advantage of Windows 8 technologies to create dynamic applications that run on a wide variety of Windows-based hardware. You can choose to design your user interface using HTML or XAML.
Windows Store apps are the focal point of the user experience on Windows 8, and great Windows Store apps share an important set of traits that provide a consistent, elegant, and compelling user experience. Here you learn about the 8 traits of great Windows Store apps.
Download, build, and run the Windows SDK samples
To make it easier for you to learn to develop Windows Store apps, we created hundreds of Windows SDK samples. This topic tells you how to download, build, and run these samples.
With Windows 8, we combined all of the samples across features of the platform into one single download location: the MSDN Gallery for Windows Store app samples (http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsapps/).
The samples that are marked "Official Windows SDK Sample" come from Microsoft and were tested alongside the OS components. They provide examples of user experience best practices for Windows Store apps.
The MSDN Gallery for Windows Store app samples also contains samples that community members created.
Now that you created your first Windows Store apps, check out the rest of the Dev Center. Here's an introduction to the different sections it contains.
If you’re a developer, Windows 8 gives you an amazing platform to reach the millions of people around the world who use Windows every day to be more productive, creative, and to have fun. With Windows 8, you have unprecedented access and opportunity to reach that worldwide customer base early. Windows 8 represents the most significant platform opportunity available to developers because you have the change to reach millions of people with your amazing Windows Store apps.
Apps are at the center of the Windows 8 experience. They’re alive with activity and vibrant content. Users are immersed in your full-screen, Windows Store apps, where they can focus on their content, rather than on the operating system.
Developers can take advantage of the services Microsoft provides so their apps will light up when they’re connected to the cloud. When developers connect apps to the cloud using the Live SDK, they can take advantage of single sign-on, which gets users even deeper into their app experience because they’ll be able to more easily store data and communicate with their friends and family.
Signing up to sell your app in the Windows Store means you can tap into the worldwide user base of Windows. You’ll draw from a wealth of new tools and services, including updated versions of Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8, Blend for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012, an optimized Windows 8 SDK, and personalized app telemetry data, so you can develop and deploy apps faster and more profitably.
With Windows 8, you can leverage your existing skills and code assets to create Windows Store apps for your customers.
Web developers can use their HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript skills, as well as their experience with third-party JavaScript libraries.
Microsoft .NET Framework and Silverlight developers can use their XAML, C#, and Visual Basic skills.
Developers looking for maximum performance for their games and other graphics-intensive apps can use the power of Microsoft DirectX 11.
With Windows 8, you’re ready to imagine, build, and sell the next great app to the entire world.
