Is it possible to create a Windows 8 Store App from Visual Studio 2013?

Question

So, I have a Windows 8.1 machine with Visual Studio 2013 installed. Whenever I go to create a new Windows Store project I do not see any options to create a new Windows 8 St

Answer 1

You need to use Visual Studio 2012 to create the Windows 8 projects.

Based on my own experience if you don't have do developer a Windows 8 version, just focus on 8.1. For me only 3% of the sales are generated by the Windows 8 version. I only backported my 8.1 app for experience sake.

Answer 2

You cannot developer Windows 8.0 application using VS 2013. You have to install VS 2012 for Windows 8.0.

Answer 3

I did the following:

It's easy - create a new 8.1 project and remove the following lines from the .csproj file:

<TargetPlatformVersion>8.1</TargetPlatformVersion>
<MinimumVisualStudioVersion>12</MinimumVisualStudioVersion>

Reopen the file and voila - it's a Windows 8 project!

But it's not Voila. Reloading the project after this edit puts up a dialog saying VS2013 needs an update, and directs you to the MS Download site (assumedly to download the Phone 8.0 SDK.

I made completely sure I had the Phone 8.0 SDK installed with VS2013 installer. I even went so far as to remove (with 2013 installer) and re-add. Still this behavior persists. I'm now downloading the 8.0 SDK, which is installing 2012 Express of course. We'll see if that helps, but it seems like this shouldn't be necessary. What am I missing?

It didn't resolve the behavior. Now, I load up the solution and it won't load the project. The project has the notation (update required). When you select download update from the context menu, it just takes you to MS Downloads--no idea what needs to be downloaded.

Can someone please explain the highly voted answer above? I'm running Win 8.1 Pro with VS2013 Premium (Phone 8 SDK installed)...and I now have the VS2012 Express install that came with the regular Phone 8.0 SDK download. Thanks.

Answer 4

As Reed said, you cannot create Windows 8 App store project in Visual Studio 2013 and you need to have VS2012 installed too. But as a trick you can make a copy from an existing Win 8 app project and modify it. It is not very neat solution but works if you do not want to install VS2012 as well.

Answer 5

Is it possible to create a Windows 8 Store App project from Visual Studio 2013 when running on Windows 8.1?

No. You need to use Visual Studio 2012 to create the Windows 8 project, then open it in VS 2013. This can be done in Windows 8.1, but requires installing VS 2012 side by side with VS 2013.

Answer 6

It's easy - create a new 8.1 project and remove the following lines from the .csproj file:

<TargetPlatformVersion>8.1</TargetPlatformVersion>
<MinimumVisualStudioVersion>12</MinimumVisualStudioVersion>

Reopen the file and voila - it's a Windows 8 project!

Additionally, you might want to change the following as well:
In MainPage.xaml:

-    <Grid Background="{ThemeResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">
+    <Grid Background="{StaticResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">

In Package.appxmanifest:

- <m2:VisualElements
+ <VisualElements
- Square150x150Logo="Assets\Logo.png"
- Square30x30Logo="Assets\SmallLogo.png"
+ Logo="Assets\Logo.png"
+ SmallLogo="Assets\SmallLogo.png"
- <m2:SplashScreen Image="Assets\SplashScreen.png" />
+ <SplashScreen Image="Assets\SplashScreen.png" />
- </m2:VisualElements>
+ </VisualElements>        

If this doesn't work - it might mean that the project files have further changed in current versions of VS and you might need to install VS 2012 (Express should do) and create a project in that. You can then work on it in the new version of VS.