Development for Windows 10 - where to start

Hello! You probably already heard the news about the fact that in the first 4 weeks of Windows 10 have already installed more than 75 million people . In this context, we are especially pleased to share with you an introductory article from Arseny Pechenkin from DataArt about how to start developing applications for the top ten.

For those who doubt whether or not to install Windows 10 on their favorite machine, we offer a small review of materials about the platform, development tools and new features available during application development.

I think everyone already knows where and how to get your copy of Windows 10, - we will not linger on this moment. Installation is the same as installing Windows 8. If you are going to upgrade your system, I strongly recommend that you back up files from the system disk.
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Instruments

What development tools can I use? You will need a new MS Visual Studio 2015 . The free edition of Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition and the paid editions of Professional and Enterprise are now available.



You also need the Windows 10 SDK and the Windows 10 Mobile emulator . These packages can be bundled with Visual Studio 2015 (if you select a custom installation and choose to install these packages, so far only in RC) or download separately.

Documentation

In addition to the development tools, you must have documentation on the platform. The main information is collected on the official portal for developers. Those who are just familiar with the development of Windows 10, I recommend to pay attention to the following sections:

• new in the platform ;
• practical guides ;
• API reference ;
• design guidelines ;
• forum to discuss problems .

Some time ago, almost all sections on development for Windows 10 led to sections on development for Windows 8.1, but after the release, the documentation is gradually updated (taking into account the fact that the UWP platform for Windows 10 is a development of WinRT).

Online course at Microsoft Virtual Academy

For those who prefer the audio-visual format for exploring the platform, there is an introductory course: A Developer's Guide to Windows 10 .

The course describes the main features of the platform, models and tools available for creating Windows applications. There are several main scenarios that are implemented in the application: work with a small amount of memory, background tasks, communication between devices, file and data management, and user interaction methods.

License and unlock device

As with the development for Windows 8 / 8.1, you need a developer license. It is obtained in the same way as the Windows 8 / 8.1 developer license when creating the first project directly in Visual Studio (this is not the same as an account for publishing in a store). To install applications on devices, do not forget to unblock them:

Universal applications

What new is waiting for the developer? Announced that the universal application can be run on any platform of Windows 10. This is implemented through a system of various APIs. That is, there is an API layer that is common to all platforms (Universal Windows Platform, UWP). If the application uses only its capabilities, it will work on all platforms with UWP.



If you need to use specific features of the platform (for example, working with hardware buttons on a smartphone), then you can use the corresponding API via platform extensions. This functionality will only work on platforms with these APIs, so you need to embed accessibility checks on the relevant methods and classes in your code.

Templates

Out of the box in Visual Studio, only one Blank App project template is available to us.



This is a project for a one-page universal Windows application, in which there are no predefined controls and structure.
In addition to the standard template, you can find templates from the developer community .



Now the collection contains the following project templates:

• Blank App, the main single-page XAML project. Similar to the standard Blank App, included in Windows 10 SDK, but without Application Insights telemetry.
• SplitView App, a multi-page application project with an adaptive SplitView control.
• The Composition App, a project that does not use the standard component library, uses the Windows.UI.Composition API instead.
• Composition XAML App, project using XAML and Windows.UI.Composition API.

Examples

To facilitate logging into the UWP platform, Microsoft has prepared a growing collection of examples:

• Examples of working with UWP [ zip ]
• Ready examples of applications:
  
  • Traffic app: code [ zip ]
  • Quiz game: code [ zip ]
  • RSS reader: code [ zip ]

Application Porting

A pleasant moment for developers is the ability to transfer Windows 8.1 applications to Windows 10 ( instruction , video ). If you had an application under Windows Phone Silverlight, there is a separate instruction for porting the application to UWP .

Results

Windows 10 is already available to everyone, to the services of developers - SDK and development tools. With the experience of creating applications for Windows 8, mastering the new platform will be easy and does not require much time.

about the author

Arseny Pechenkin , .NET developer at DataArt. Participant and winner of contests and hackathons: Hackaphone KASPESRKY lab, Hackaphone Tour Voronezh 2013, Hackaton Apps4all and Imagine Cup 2014. Graduate student of the VSTU in the specialty "Mathematical and software of computers, complexes and computer networks". Participant and speaker at technology conferences (Droidcon Moscow 2014, GDG DevFest Voronezh 2014, Microsoft Developer Tour 2015 Voronezh).