Building Windows 8 Metro App on Windows 7 with Visual Studio 2010

15
votes

My Visual Studio can't seem to build any of the Metro Sample applications. As I've never really used this IDE before, I've pretty much given up.

Can anyone direct me to a sample application that is already built and preferably some source code along with it for reference?

Note:

I have a copy of Windows 7 AND 8. However I can't seem to build Microsoft's File Access Sample in my copy of Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate. I'm trying to test one of my Win7 applications in Metro mode of Win8 (the application may be called for use during a user's session in a given Metro app).

3
windows-8windows-runtimewindows-store-apps
check that link blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2009/12/08/… maybe it helps – Mustafa Ekici
Where did you get the Windows 8 copy? You need the "Windows 8 Developer Preview with developer tools English, 64-bit (x64)" from here: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516 Also: a Win7 application can not be run in Metro mode. W8 will switch to desktop mode and run the app as it does when you start Visual Studio. – Emond Erno
Metro apps will only run in Windows 8. Not in Windows 7. What are you trying to do ? – Tiago Andrade e Silva
Is building a Metro application restricted to Windows 8 machines? – Federer
You can build a "Metro-style" application on any platform - e.g. using WPF or Silverlight, but if you want to build a "Metro Application" for Windows 8 - you will probably want to build it on top of Windows Runtime (or WinRT for short), which only runs on Windows 8. If you want to start developing for Windows 8 your options are to - install Windows 8 with developer tools on a machine, do the same as dual boot to keep the remaining system or run Windows 8 in virtualized environment (though that way you won't get touch events and performance will suck). – Filip Skakun

3 Answers

16
votes

Metro Apps (that is, applicatons based on WinRT in Windows 8) will not run in Visual Studio 2010. You need Visual Studio 11 express (that comes on the Windows 8 Developer Preview with developer tools English, 64-bit (x64) or Visual Studio 11 developer preview (available for MSDN subscribers)).

5
votes

According to Getting started with Windows Metro style app development, "To begin building Metro style apps for Windows, you must first download and install the Windows Developer Preview, which includes Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Express for Windows Developer Preview and the Windows SDK for Metro style Apps."

So I think you'll have to do metro-style development from the Windows 8 Preview for now. That website also has some hello world type stuff and general direction on getting started.

-1
votes

You probably can build Metro Style Apps in Visual Studio 2010. Basically Metro is a special type of design where focus is more on texts than pictures. Metro means " Text before Chrome". If you can build such metro controls ( or you can copy some from any windows 8 copy) you probably will be able to build very basic Metro style apps , but if u wish to build something advanced then i would suggest better switch to Windows 8 with Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate .