Tool Preview and SDK for Windows 10 Application Development

Friends, we are in a hurry to share big and important news for developers: within the Windows Insider program, preview tools and an SDK are available for developing applications for Windows 10.


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First of all, we want to note that this is a preliminary version. Laying out the tools before the release, we want to give you the opportunity to experiment with the new features of the platform and use your feedback to bring Windows 10 to the release state.

Key points regarding tools and SDKs laid out

Adaptive user experience

One of the key tasks of Windows 10 is to provide the ability to use a single UI that can scale on different screens. For developers of universal applications under Windows 8.1, this means that you can leave only one of your UI projects by adding an improved VisualStateManager to manage the adaptation of the UI at runtime.

Controls

The main controls in Windows 10 will be able to determine at runtime how the user interacts with them and update their presentation accordingly (for example, on a touchscreen laptop, a pop-up control can provide a wider area for detecting pressing if it is activated with a finger, than in the case of mouse activation).

API Contracts

In Windows 10, you can directly check whether the required functionality is available in Windows instead of starting from the OS version. This means that you should start checking the availability of the desired opportunity before accessing it. A good example of such a contract is the API for checking the presence of hardware buttons that are present on the phone (via Mobile Extensions SDK), and thus work in mobile devices and an emulator, but not on the desktop. We are confident that API contracts and extension SDKs will allow your code to adapt during operation to provide the experience best suited to the device on which the application is running.

Visual Studio tool enhancements

As you experiment with the tools, you will find many improvements. For details, it is highly recommended to refer to the post S. Somasegar: Tools for Windows 10 Technical Preview .

Resources

Introducing the Universal App Platform

First look at the Windows 10 platform and the creation of universal applications from Kevin Gallo.

Training course Windows 10 Jumpstart Preview

Preview course on developing applications for Windows 10 and the path from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10.

What's new in Windows 10 for developers

Documentation for developers in the Windows development center. (The site can still be updated!)

Code examples

New code samples for Windows 10 will be published on GitHub. Today we publish the first batch of examples. Much more will be ready for the Build conference.

Where to begin

1. Join the Windows Insider program.
2. Start creating applications.
3. If you encounter a problem (we warned you that this is a preview!), First, read the release notes and known issues . Second, continue to use the Windows and Windows Phone forums on MSDN to discuss problems. And third, use the Windows Feedback app inside Windows 10 to report bugs.
3. If you have a suggestion for API and platform features, post them via the UserVoice website .

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