5 Steps to Develop a Perfect Windows 10 App Development Environment

Windows 10 App Development EnvironmentAs per Microsoft's reports, over 200 million PCs, tablets, and phones are now running on Windows 10, thereby making it the fastest growing version of Windows in history. Since the Windows 10 launch, over 3 billion visits have been made to the Windows Store. Windows 10 users make up the fastest growing app download segment, growing both in volume and percentage of downloads YOY.

By creating an app for Windows 10, one has the opportunity to reach millions of users across the globe irrespective of the type of device used, since Windows 10 supports phones, desktops, tablets, etc. This is largely due to the fact that the Windows 10 app development environment delivers compatibility to your apps across Windows 10 devices with a common API along with tools and options to tailor your app to each device's unique experience.

5 Steps to an Ideal Windows 10 App Development Environment

Before starting coding on any Windows 10 application development project, an app developer needs to take care of a few things in order to ensure better development times. Here we have listed the 5 steps to be followed by a developer to create an ideal windows application development environment:

  1. Start with a Clean Slate

    Windows-10-SDK

    • The Windows 10 SDK works best on the Windows 10 operating system
    • A developer can either upgrade the existing Windows operating system to Windows 10 or he can download the Windows 10 ISO and perform a clean install. Sometimes, few problems might occur while upgrading hence downloading the Windows 10 ISO on a clean new disk is the most preferred option
    • One can install the SDK on older versions of Windows, but one should know that not all tools and functionality exists on those platforms

  2. Install Visual Studio 2015 and Enable Developer Mode for Windows 10

    Visual Studio

    • The next step is to install Visual Studio 2015 on the system. This is the most important step for creating Universal Windows Apps, and one can start simply by selecting the "Blank App" template
    • An error message will be displayed while trying to run this application asking to enable the developer mode
    • It can be enabled by going to "Settings" and selecting Developer Mode, which would then allow you to create your own Windows app

  3. Install the Windows 10 Mobile Emulators

    Emulator

    • It is important that the windows app developer knows how the app will actually appear and function on the phone, or any other Windows device. For this purpose the developer needs to download and install Windows 10 Mobile emulators
    • After installation and restarting Visual Studio, one will be able to see the mobile emulators on their screen
    • Emulators need to have Hyper-V on the system and the Computer BIOS should support hardware-assisted virtualization, SLAT, and hardware-based Data Execution Prevention (DEP)

  4. Deploy the App on a Physical Device Using Windows Insider

    Phone Insider

    • Once you get hold of supported Windows hardware or a Windows Phone, download the Windows Insider App from the App Store and sign up for the preview
    • After clicking the run button, one needs to allow the installation of apps on the device after which one will be allowed to deploy the Windows Universal App on the phone running on Windows 10

  5. Install Developer Assistant for Visual Studio

    Developer Assistant

    As a developer looking to create high-quality Windows apps, you need to download and install the Developer Assistant for Visual Studio which provides three main benefits, including:

    • API Assistant which helps you find code samples for APIs while you are coding in Visual Studio
    • Programming Task Assistant which provides the developer with code samples that span the web and also include samples from Github
    • Compiler Error Assistant which helps developers to resolve various compiler errors

Features of the Windows 10 Development Environment

The features in the Windows 10 Development environment are pretty new and less well-known as compared to their traditional counterparts. But some of them are pretty useful and are gaining popularity amongst developers for their ease of use. Some of them are:

  1. Better Aesthetics

    Windows 10 has proven itself to be the better looking operating system as compared to its predecessors. This has to do more with Microsoft finally updating its decades-old system icons, forming a more cohesive design language which makes use of modern tile like designs, etc. The Windows 10 apps built on this platform function correctly and provide a better feel as compared to the older versions of Windows.

  2. Multi-tasking Environment

    A unique feature of the Windows development environment is its multi-tasking capability. A user can open multiple tools and applications and run all of them at the same time. The user interface allows easy toggling between the various windows, while providing easy and intuitive touch controls to do the same as well.

  3. Continuum Feature of Windows 10

    One of the signature features of Windows 10 is Continuum, wherein Windows phone users can use their device as a PC simply by plugging it into a monitor. The main aim of this feature is to allow users a complete computing experience regardless of the device used. While in Continuum mode, a user can still use his phone to make calls, see and reply to texts, etc., a feature which many developers can leverage to build apps targeting such users.

Popular Tools Used for Windows Mobile App Development

Windows app development is increasingly gaining importance amongst the mobile app development community. In the quest for providing the best mobile apps and user experience, developers are constantly looking out for newer tools and trying to keep themselves updated with the latest tools and technologies available in the market.

Some of the latest tools used by developers these days for effective Windows 10 mobile development include:

Get your Windows 10 Mobile App Developed by Us Today

Flatworld Solutions has been providing flawless Windows 10 mobile app development services to clients around the world at very competitive prices. These services are handled by a team who have ample amount of experience and who are able to understand the intricacies of the environment. Our highly experienced team is skilled to deal with critical scenarios and develop futuristic apps for the Universal Windows Platform which works across mobiles, tablets, and desktops.

If you are looking for a Windows 10 app developing partner, feel free to share your app idea with us and we will get back to you within 24 hours.

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