Welcome to developing for Windows 8 Consumer Preview!

You’ve witnessed the brand new Windows 8 experience from the Consumer Preview. Why not start developing for it now? This start-up kit will help you create exciting new experiences for Windows users globally.

Let’s get started!

Step 1. Check for recommended system requirements to ensure optimal development performance. 

If you’re all revved up to start developing apps for Windows 8, check for the list of recommended system requirements.

• Processor: 1.6 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit), 1.5 GB on a virtual machine
• Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• Graphics card: MicrosoftDirectX 9 graphics device or higher
• Additional requirements to use certain features:
  • To use touch, you need a tablet or a monitor that supports multitouch.
  • To access the Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768.
  • To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768.

Step 2. Now for the fun part. Installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview. 

You can pick and choose how you want to get this done:

• Setup program: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download
• ISO image: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso

After downloading the ISO image, we recommend you to create a boot disk using this.

Once you have finished downloading either the setup program or preparing the boot disk through from the ISO image, you can start to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

If you don’t want to fully migrate to Windows 8 Consumer Preview just yet then we highly recommend you to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a separate partition of your machine’s hard disk. Here is a recommended guide that will help you do that.

After a few minutes of waiting and customizing your preferences, Windows 8 Consumer Preview will be good to go!

Step 3. Download development tools from the Microsoft MSDN website. 

The link for development tools is here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516

Once you’re done downloading the tools and SDK, you can begin installing them.

The basic tools come with Visual Studio 11 Beta and Blend for Visual Studio, together with the Windows 8 SDK. These tools will help you create your first Metro style app.

 

Step 4: Check out these tutorials for guidance

We’ve prepared some tutorials to get you started with creating Metro style applications for Windows 8 Consumer Preview. There are a few ways around this, but depending on what you’re more comfortable with, you can check these out:

JavaScript:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211385.aspx

C# or Visual Basic:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211380.aspx

C++:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh465045.aspx

Step 5: Looking good. Now you can officially start developing on Windows 8 Consumer Preview!

Once you have a great idea in mind for the application, take some time to think about the sort of user experience you want to bring to your app users. 

 

Comprehensive docs, articles, quickstarts, roadmaps, tutorials, checklists, developer agreements, and whitepapers covering all aspects of app design, development, and selling can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/

 

Enjoy yourself and we hope you have fun developing for Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Looking forward to see your app soon on the store!

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