How can I run windows 8 phone app in Emulator outside Visual studio 2013?

Question

How can I Run my windows phone 8.1 app in the emulator without opening visual studio 2013.

The following did not work:

http://gauravmahajan.net/2013/02/06/launch-windows-phone-8-emulator-without-launching-visual-studio-2012/

The Emulator opens, but the emulator only opens the default homepage of the OS.

Answer 1

use Windows Phone Power Tools on codeplex to sideload your .xap to the emulator

https://wptools.codeplex.com/

Answer 2

It happens because emulator uses diff disk image to store local data, like installed applications. You need add /creatediffdisk %path_to_the_diif_image%.vhd parameter. Visual Studio stores those C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Microsoft\XDE\8.1 folder.

My advice is to start required emulator using Visual Studio and use any task manager, like Process Explorer to copy command line. Then you can create shortcut.

I hope it'll help :)

Answer 3

If you have Visual Studio installed, you can run apps (.xap, .xappx files) with the "Windows Phone Application Deployment 8.1" Tool.

Open it with just tipping "Windows Phone Application Deployment 8.1" in the search box (Windows-Logo + Q).