What do I need to install so that I can develop applications for Windows Mobile 6.5.3 devices, using Visual Studio 2008?
Since it took me like 3 days of research to figure out how to actually do this I'm creating this article to hopefully ease some others pain.
Firstly, have Visual Studio 2008 installed. Secondly, install these add on pieces:
Windows Mobile 6 Professional and Standard Software Development Kits Refresh
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=06111a3a-a651-4745-88ef-3d48091a390b&displaylang=en
Windows Mobile 6.1.4 Professional Images (USA)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1A7A6B52-F89E-4354-84CE-5D19C204498A&displaylang=en
Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional Developer Tool Kit (USA)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=20686a1d-97a8-4f80-bc6a-ae010e085a6e&displaylang=en
Windows Mobile 6.5.3 Professional DTK
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c0213f68-2e01-4e5c-a8b2-35e081dcf1ca&displaylang=en
You may not need to install all of these but I did and it won't hurt anything most likely. nextly
Open Visual Studio 2008 and create a new project for Smart Device click ok
Select Device Application on the main window with the icons and change the target platform to Windows Mobile 6 Standard SDK. Click OK.
Right click on the the Project Name in the solution explorer and select Change Target Platform and choose Windows Mobile 6.5.3 Professional SDK. Click Ok.
The project will need to be closed and reopened.
That simple!
For Windows 10 (and probably some earlier versions) I think Andrew's answer is missing something important. It also includes some packages that shouldn't be needed for strictly 6.5.3 development. For reference, if you attempt to install the 6.5.3 DTK and missing anything, it should tell you.
At a minimum, you should only need the following:
VS 2008 Professional
Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK Refresh https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=6135
Windows Mobile 6.5.3 Professional DTK https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5389
Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 Driver
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3182
Related
When I try to install the Windows Phone Template Pack on Visual Studio Community 2015, the following error is obtained.
What is the reason? Where can I check the error log from?
Couple of issues:
The Windows SDK link you provided (http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=8442) is for Windows 7. It is not compatible with Visual Studio 2015 for Windows Phone development.
I think this error you're seeing with the Windows Phone Template Pack (HRESULT: 0x80070057) is because the Windows and Windows Phone 8.1 Tools are not installed on your computer along with Visual Studio Community 2015.
I am able to reproduce this only when the Windows and Windows Phone 8.1 Tools are not installed.
If I click skip, then I see the error dialog you included above.
To resolve this issue,
Go into the Control Panel
Open up Add/Remove Programs (or Programs & Features depending on your OS version)
Select Visual Studio Community 2015, then click Change
In VS setup, click Modify
Make sure that the "Tools and Windows SDKs" feature under "Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.0/8.1 Tools" is checked.
If you're running Windows 8.0/8.1/10 x64 Professional or higher with a Hyper-V capable computer and then you should also be able to install the Windows Phone 8.1 emulators.
-Paul Chapman [MSFT]
Found this answer today, but it no longer works, or doesn't work if the host OS is Windows 7 Pro. I just installed Windows 7 Pro (plus all updates) and then VS2015 (plus all of ITS updates) on an otherwise CLEAN computer. NO SDK was installed. My options for modify look like this:
The Windows 8.1...Tools option is TOTALLY MISSING. The Windows 10.0 SDK is offered under the Universal Windows...Tools option, but that doesn't help me with Windows 7 targeted development.
Also, FWIW, the Windows 8.1 install tool that Microsoft is offering for download just gets an APPCRASH every time I try to use it (and yes, I've downloaded it several times, even to different machines, but always with the same result.)
So for me, I can either stick with Visual Studio 2010 or suffer the user interface abomination that is/was Visual Studio 2012 (not gonna happen). Sigh.
I today upgraded to Windows 10 Build 10074 that I downloaded from here. Now, I wanted to develop apps for Windows and Windows Phone as a Universal app. Also that I'm willing to do the same for Android devices therefore, I downloaded Visual Studio Community 2013 with Update 4 from here. Now, after it installed it first gave a warning that the system doesn't support Windows Phone 8 emulator (and I understand this because I suppose the processor, Core 2 Duo E7000 doesn't support visualization/SLAT technology). After this I opened Visual Studio which first loaded, then closed automatically (quite abruptly). I opened a sample solution afterward which loaded, then a dialog came stating you need to enable developer mode in Windows 10 under Settings>Update and Security>For Developers but when I went there and clicked For Developers, the window closed (similar to Visual Studio).
How do I enable it then? And I don't know should I re-install/uninstall it? Or maybe I should download Visual Studio 2015 RC?
Thanks,
Kvaibhav01.
If you really want to develop for the new universal app Platform, you will need VS2015 RC, but your apps won't work on Windows 8 devices, only for Windows 10.
I installed Windows Mobile 6 Professional SDK and tried to create new Smart Device project in VS2008. I expected to see a form like a mobile device in editor, however I just see a regular windows form, and application cannot be built.
Did anyone have same behavior? May be some additional componets should be installed or some configuration required?
Not all version of Visual Studio have the Smart Device pieces included. Is it Visual Studio 2008 Professional or better (i.e. not Express or Standard)?
Visual Studio also has the choice at installation to exclude pieces. Does your installation have the Smart Device Programming bits installed (re-run the installer to check)?
I'm about to start working on a Windows Phone project which targets Windows Phone 7.5.
For other projects, I use Visual Studio 11, but when I try to load the WP 7 projects, they show up as unavailable. Apparently, they are "...incompatible with the current edition of Visual Studio" (the message I get when hovering over the project nodes in the solution explorer).
I am able to open the projects in Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone (available from this page along with the 7.1 SDK package), but I would really prefer to work in VS11. I find it hard to believe that there is no way to do this, yet I have not been able to find any clear answers;
Any pointers or ideas on how to make VS11 support WP 7 projects in Windows 7 (if it is at all possible) would be appreciated.
Update: I forgot to mention one critical detail: I am using Windows 7, which prohibits me from using the Windows 8 SDK (which requires Windows 8).
Yes, you can develop Windows Phone 7.5 and 8 applications in same IDE — Visual Studio 2012. Just download and install SDK 8.0.
UPDATE: On Windows 7 please try this solution:
Download all files of this folder on git-hub
Drag WPexpress_full.exe and drop it on wp8sdk_installer.exe
Follow the White Rabbit
But be prepare for some bad news:
Windows Phone 8 emulator doesn't work
Blend for Windows Phone 8 doesn't work
Apparently this does not seem to be possible.
Citing the linked page:
Windows Phone: You can’t open this project in Visual Studio 2012
because it doesn't support the project type.
I'm assuming this will change once we switch to Windows 8, and are able to use the Windows 8 SDK, as andrewpey mentioned.
I've installed Windows Phone SDK 8.0 and there are no project types for desktop windows RT applications.
How can I develop this type of applications?
Windows RT is not associated with the Phone SDK - it comes from the main desktop development environment.
Microsoft does not allow desktop apps to be built for Windows RT. The RT desktop is limited to make the office applications work, but does not include the full windows functionality.
To develop windows 8 desktop apps, you use Visual Studio as you would have in the past for desktop apps.
To build a windows store app you would go under c# and select Windows Store. Tutorials located at Microsoft. There you will get a selection of templates you can build from to make your app. I expect these templates will also build apps that can run on a Windows RT device. (I haven't tested that though)
Creating desktop applications for Windows RT?
Technically, you cannot develop Desktop Applications for Windows RT. Its not officially supported by Microsoft. You can develop Store Applications for it, though. Store Apps used to be called Metro Apps, but Microsoft was exposed to legal risk with the name (see Microsoft to drop 'Metro' name for Windows 8).
For hacking around the restriction, see Can ARM desktop programs be built using visual studio 2012. However, your app will likely be rejected from Microsoft's Windows Store if you submit it.
...are no project types for desktop windows RT applications.
Windows RT is there - you want a Windows Store app:
The Windows Store App project will define WINAPI_FAMILY=WINAPI_FAMILY_APP. It will have three platforms: X86, X64 and ARM. Windows RT Pro is X64. Windows RT is ARM. I'm not sure what X86 is classified as. For developers and engineers, its all just WINAPI_FAMILY=WINAPI_FAMILY_APP with three platforms. There's no difference between Pro and non-Pro under Visual Studio (some hand waiving).
For some good reading on WINAPI_FAMILY and platform detection, see Chuck Walbourn's three part series Dual-use Coding Techniques for Games.
With some hand waiving, the backend difference between Windows Phone and Windows Store is:
Windows RT uses the compiler located at
%VSINSTALLDIR%\VC\bin\x86_ARM\CL.exe
Windows Phone uses the compiler located at
%VSINSTALLDIR%\VC\WPSDK\WP80\bin\x86_arm\link.exe
Obviously, the paths change when platforms change. But the linker (link.exe) and other tools (like lib.exe) are in the same directory as the compiler.
The environment for Windows RT (ARM) is labeled Visual Studio 2012 ARM Cross Tools Command Prompt. You can find it at Start (what's left of it) → Program Files → Visual Studio 2012 → Visual Studio Tools:
The environment for Windows Phone (ARM) is labeled Visual Studio 2012 ARM Phone Tools Command Prompt:
Similarly, the environment for Windows Phone (X86) is labeled Visual Studio 2012 X86 Phone Tools Command Prompt; and Windows RT Pro (X64) is labeled Visual Studio 2012 X64 Cross Tools Command Prompt.
All the command prompts set the environment so INCLUDE, LIBPATH, PATH etc are ready for command line development. To date, that's all I have used because I have been porting libraries. I have not use Visual Studio for a project yet.
You will also want to look over Can ARM desktop programs be built using visual studio 2012 for the _ARM_WINAPI_PARTITION_DESKTOP_SDK_AVAILABLE=1 define.
Also see Jason Zander’s What you need to know about developing for Windows on ARM (WOA) on MSDN.
Finally, see Desktop apps ported to Windows RT on XDA Developers forum.
You can sort of hack Visual Studio 2012 and later to allow you to reference RT in windows desktop apps.
1.) Unload your project in Visual Studio
2.) Add a TargetPlatformVersion property to the project:
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetPlatformVersion>8.0</TargetPlatformVersion>
</PropertyGroup>
3.) Reload the project.
4.) Go to "Add Reference..."
5.) There should now be an additional Windows option on the left panel that allows you to add the Windows Core reference.
For more information see Using Windows 8* WinRT API from desktop applications
Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 are two separate products and require 2 separate SDKs to develop for. Windows Phone 8 runs on mobile devices only, while Windows 8 runs on desktops, laptops and tablets.
All you need to do to build Windows 8 apps is a machine with Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 installed on it. You can use the 90 day evaluation for Windows 8 Enterprise with the Express (free) edition of Visual Studio to build such apps. If you are a student you get full version of Visual Studio for free via the Dreamspark program.
To develop Windows Store apps, you need Visual Studio 2012.
The Visual Studio Express that comes with the Windows Phone SDK does not have the templates for developing Windows Store apps.