How to get started with windows phone SDK 8.1?

9
votes

Situation:
I am running windows 7 professional and I am trying to start developing windows phone 8.1 application.
I have downloaded :

  • VS2013_RTM_DskExp_ENU.iso that is Microsoft Visual studio 2013 Express RTM.
  • Since this is RTM update and windows phone 8.1 developement needs 2 RC updated, I downloaded VS2013.2 RC.exe, which is online installer for the update mentioned. To download the full local installation package (3.43 GB), I ran E:/vs/"VS2013.2 RC.exe" /layout on command line.

For installation:

  • I first installed Microsoft Visual studio 2013 Express RTM
  • Then 2 RC update.

Both of them installed sucessfully with no errors. But when I open Visual Studio 2013>VS Express 2013 for Desktop from start menu, and File>New Project>Installed>Templates>Visual C#, there is no option for windows phone development. That is what I want.

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Question: How can I get the options to develop windows phone 8.1 in visual studio 2013 express using C#?

1
c#visual-studiowindows-phone-8visual-studio-2013
Check the Visual Studio Web Site. The only version of VS that supports Windows Phone is VS2012, and it requires a Windows 8.x (x64) development system. – user1864610
@MikeW Actually there is a website for windows phone developers ( dev.windowsphone.com/en-us/downloadsdk ) which states that you can use VS 2013 to develop windows phone. Also refering Microsoft Download Center (microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42307), they say that "windows 7 Service Pack 1" is also suitable. – Musa Haidari
It seems that development tools refer to IDE only, and you still need to download and install Windows Phone SDK 8.0 separately, which requires Windows 8 64 bit – har07
@har07 Qouted from dev.windowsphone.com/en-us/downloadsdk :"The Windows Phone 8.1 development tools are included with Visual Studio 2013 (Update 2 or later). If you already have Visual Studio 2013 installed, use the download link to install Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 RC". This says that the download include the SDK – Musa Haidari

1 Answers

6
votes

Windows 8.1 is required to develop for Windows Phone 8.1

From the SDK download page:

For Windows Phone development:

  • Windows Phone 8.0 development requires Windows 8.1 (x64) or higher
  • Windows Phone 8.1 development requires Windows 8.1 (x86) or higher
  • For the Windows Phone emulators, Windows 8.1 (x64) Professional
    edition or higher, and a processor that supports Client Hyper-V and
    Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)