Can you have a universal app that targets Windows 10 and 8.1? - windows-8

I have a universal app for Windows 8.1 and Phone 8.1 and am looking to make the jump to Windows 10.
Looking at the guides, I need to recreate the projects, but does this mean this new project will only work on Windows 10?
What is the strategy for this setup? Keep a Windows 8.1 version and a Windows 10 version? Or does the Windows 10 version work on 8.1?

You can't.
Windows 10 introduces several new API and also included old API's those work in Windows 8. but you just simply can't run Windows 10 app in Windows 8 environment.
if you look at this site: http://www.jayway.com/2015/06/16/do-windows-8-apps-run-on-windows-10/
he tells us that Win 8 app runs Win 10 but lack of some feature such as charm bar and splash screen.
of course this concerns many developer but in my honest opinion, you should just move on to developing app for windows 10. everyone will upgrade, eventually.
there's so many advantages for developing win 10 app, one of them is your app will run on broader device and market.
more info: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/dn894631.aspx

Related

Develop a windows store app for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

is it possible to develop an app for windows 8 and it will run on windows 8.1 normally? what about the validation in the store? and its visibility in the store for users who have windows 8.1 on their pcs?
why visual studio 2013 professional version is supported by windows 8 and not visual studio 2013 express edition for windows?
if we developp a library in windows phone 8, could we reuse it in Windows 8.1 application? (specifically its validation in the store?)
thx for ur answers
Will a Win8 app run on Win8.1?
Check this question here on SO: Migration Windows Store App based on 8.1. does it has backward compatibility with 8?
Basically, the answer is YES. But not the other way around. Windows 8.1 apps will not work on Windows 8. So the visibility in the store depends on the targeted version of the app and the version that is running. Win 8.1 users will see both and Win 8 users only see Win 8 apps.
VS2013 Express on Windows 8.1 only?
Depends on the type of VS you want. Check the Visual Studio Express page and decide which version you want. For example Express 2013 for Windows will only work on Windows 8.1, while Express 2013 for Windows Desktop will also work on Windows 8.
Windows Phone 8 to Windows 8?
Channel9 Always had interesting posts about development and for this case too. Check the page Building Apps for Both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 Jump Start for more information about developing for both platforms.
Hope this helps! :)

App for Windows 8 pro

I need to create an application that runs on windows 8 pro.
When building my application with phonegap I get a resulting .xap file for Windows8 phone.
This can't be executed so I assume I need a .exe.
I also read about .appx files.
Can anyone clearify the difference between all the extensions and what my options are for a windows 8 PRO - application. Is it possible to use phonegap or is this only for windows phone?
Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 are different platforms with some common roots. XAP is the deployment vehicle for phone, and .appx is for Windows 8.
Since PhoneGap is just a JavaScript library, it can be used with Windows 8 applications, but you'll need to incorporate it into a Windows 8 HTML5/JavaScript application. Here's a blog post that should get you on your way: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/glengordon/archive/2012/08/06/windows-8-apps-for-the-phonegap-developer.aspx

Windows store apps not displaying in windows 8

I installed windows 8 release preview. In my windows store i cant see many windows 8 apps like Skype.It displaying only 420 apps from starting. Not displaying any new apps. I dont know why ?.
Please upgrade to the RTM version. You can download it from MSDN

Developing Windows 8 Metro-Style apps requires Windows 8 rc preview, right?

There's no emulator for Windows 8, so in order to develop metro apps I must install the release candidate on a device and run Visual Studio there, right? That's what this page seems to suggest, but I just wanted to double check.
Yes, Windows8 is required.
However, VM can be used. For example, I'm running Win8RP/64 and VS2012RC in Oracle VirtualBox on Win7/64.
NOTE: For developing Metro Style App, you should NOT install VirtualBox Extension Pack.
Yes, you need Windows 8 to develop Windows 8 Metro style apps.
Metro Style apps rely on a new set of APIs which are implemented only in Windows 8 through the the Windows Runtime (WinRT).
There is no emulator for Windows 7 and not even for Windows 8... Windows 8 has a simulator which in practice is just a Remote Desktop session to the same machine. It is not an emulator.
While Windows 8 is not in its final version, what I recommend is to install Windows 8 in a VHD (virtual hard disk) and boot your PC directly to the VHD. It is faster than running virtual machines (because only the disk is virtual, all the rest is real hardware) and you can keep your Windows 7 intact.
This is what I've been using since Developer Preview. I have a dual-boot configuration being one for the Windows 7 that is booting from the regular disk partition, and one Windows 8 that is booting directly from the VHD on disk.
Metro UI style is just a design approach and some guidelines. You are free to implement such interface using Visual Studio 2010 as well as 2008. Using C# and WPF everything is possible. But, indeed, new Visual Studio has a set of Metro style components (WPF) with which your development process will be much more quicker.
The only thing you can't use at OS other than Windows 8 - is WinRT subsystem.
Almost all of the development tools needed to build Metro style applications can be run on OS's other than Windows 8 (Visual Studio and the package creation tools require Windows 8). So it should be possible to set up a build environment using msbuild.exe (or even make/nmake) that will compile and link metro-style applications on an OS other than Windows 8.
However some parts of development MUST be done on Windows 8 - the tools for some of the steps of development will only run on Windows 8.

Do Windows 8 Store Apps (Metro) run in Windows 7 or XP?

I want to know whether Metro Applications developed using Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview and .Net FrameWork 4.5 can run in Windows 7 or XP.
Not the normal Windows Form or WPF, I want to know about the all new Metro Apps.
What new things needed to run Metro Apps in Windows XP or Windows 7
What new things needed to run Metro Apps in Windows XP or Windows 7
A virtual machine of Windows 8. Metro apps currently don't run on Windows 7, and definitely don't on Windows XP. According to this thread, it's difficult but might happen eventually:
Keep your eyes out on future Channel 9 videos and on the BCL/CLR blog
for more information around the challeges of enabling the Portable
Library story, however, I will give a quick summary with regards to
ViewModels:
While the ViewModels themselves are defined by the
application, they often take dependencies on types (ie
INotifyXXXChanged interfaces, ICommand, etc) that live inside the
framework. Currently if you look across our multiple .NET platforms
(Silverlight, Phone, .NET and now Metro style apps), these all live in
different assemblies, and with Metro apps, a different
namespace/technology (WinRT). This makes it challeging to give the
user a surface area that can compile against and still have it run on
all these other platforms. We've got some ideas on how we're going to
enable this, however, it requires some work and doesn't come for free.
In saying that, however, we completely see the value and
really, really want to do this.David
But it's not currently possible. At best, you could just make a desktop app version of the same thing.
I tried it on Window 7 and answer is definitely no, you can not even develop Metro style App in Windows 7, for developing also you need Windows 8 and Visual Studio 11.
I'd be astonished if Win8 Metro-Style apps would ever work on Win7 - there is a huge amount of OS level infrastructure necessary to get those apps to work on Win8 that simply isn't available on Win7.
Having said that, people have figured out to write applications that can be made to work on both *nix and Windows with a recompile, so I imagine eventually it might be possible to write an app that could be recompiled to produce a metro-style version and a WPF/Silverlight version. But that technology simply doesn't exist at the moment.
Id say no, based on the fact that Metro requires WinRT which is not available on Windows 7 or XP
This depends on what you might want to do.
For example, if you're developing a game and want it to run on Metro/Modern UI but also on other Windows versions, MonoGame is a great option!
It will allow you to develop for and run on:
All Windows desktops
Windows 8 Metro/Modern UI
Mac OS X
Linux
XBOX 360
iOS
Android
Windows Phone
And possibly more platforms on the future.
In my honest opinion having such a wealth of target platforms warrants any learning curve you might have to develop for MonoGame. And not to mention that you can develop in the comfort of Visual Studio, so IMHO it's something to be considered even if your app is not strictly a game (who said you can't develop a non-game with a game framework...?).
Update: Here's a tutorial, and by the way, you may want to also consider HTML5 for games or non-games. Cut the Rope (very fun game) uses this, and it seems to be doing pretty well (I didn't even notice it was HTML5!).
I am developing an app for the apptivate.ms contest right now. So I can definitely tell you that the Metro apps won't work on Windows 7 or XP.
What is more, the Visual Studio Express version needed for developing the Metro Apps won't even install on Windows 7.
Also, just remember this sentence - "All Windows apps are not Windows 8 apps!"