Getting started with Window 10 development

Windows 10, works on everything, but you don’t need it to work on everything, you need it to work on your stuff.  You like Microsoft, but let’s face it, Android has a lock on the SmartPhone market.  But let’s look at the Windows 10 development potential:  Use the same design palette across all Windows 10 devices.

Windows 10 will run nicely on any system that has been running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, as well as Windows Phone and devices like the Raspberry Pi 2+, and is free for those users.  On older devices that are still running Windows XP or Vista, it isn’t offered for free, but it usually will run on anything with 1 gigabyte or better, but usually 2 gigabytes is a better experience.

How do you get started with the design of Windows 10?

I would start with this video:

https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/a-developers-guide-to-windows-10-preview?prid=ch9videolink&CR_CC=200617771

As usual it is an exhaustive introduction to the new world of Windows 10, Jerry Nixon is always a joy to learn from.

Once you have gone through the video or in parallel, get Windows 10 on a tablet or PC, along with Visual Studio so that you can work along with the Windows 10 MVA instructors:

https://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-iso , as with any new O/S make sure that you aren’t using this on your principle system.

You might want to make use of Visual Studio as well:

https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/downloads/visual-studio-2015-downloads-vs.aspx

And the good news?  The “charms” that used to come in from the right side that endlessly confused people no longer exist!  Here is where it is located on the Windows 10 apps.  For Windows 8.1 apps there is a special location as shown below.

Finally, C# with XAML will run just as fast as C++ with XAML, so there is no reason not to switch to C# and XAML.