This week Microsoft released the Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 to us developers. If you are on Windows 7, you can hit the download button and install the SDK, everything will go fine.
If you have used my tutorial on how to install the SDK on W8CP, things are a little different. You might face the following error message:
The error says that the update is not applicable or is blocked by another condition on your computer (you can read more about that here). The Link to the KB-site does not offer anything helpful, so I played around to find a workaround.
Here is a my tutorial for installing the SDK in this case:
perform a “repair install” of the Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1
install the update, if no error shows up, everything will go fine
if you face the message again, abort the installation
download the update again
after second download, everything should go fine
I know this is a little bit confusing. In fact it was the only way for me to get the update installed. I tried several ways, and if a way did not work I restored the point before the repair install to get this tutorial done.
After the installation I also tried to open up my blog app on the 256 MB emulator. Of course I was curios whether my will start or not, luckily it did:
So I hope with my little tutorial I was able to help you to get developing started with Windows 8 again. For my part I am happy, as I often code while I am at train, and in battery mode debugging on device does not work on W8CP.
Microsoft stated that Windows 8 will be able to an huge amount of devices, such as PCs, tablets as well as other devices. Well, a netbook is also a kind of a PC.
There are certain netbooks out there, which can be run in 800*600 max. screen resolution by default. Currently drivers from vendors are missing for these devices, so there won´t be a possibility to change. A colleague of me has a Nokia 3G booklet. He could not get the Metro part of the W8CP to work. He is running into an error message like the one illustrated above.
There is a solution.
Paul Thurrott posted a solution to this on his supersite for Windows. OK, it seems more than a hack, but it will lead to target.
Here is how to get the Metro part working through changing your screen resolution settings:
run Regedit (Win + C, search, type in regedit (note: you have to type in complete, otherwise the app shows not up)
search for “display1_downscalingsupported” (CTRL+F)
change its value from 0 to 1
search all entries in registry by using the F3-key of your netbook, and change again the value from 0 to 1
Paul noted that the look of the desktop part maybe a little bit skewed or squished. But now you have additional screen resolution options.
Note: if you do not know what you’re doing, you should not follow these steps! I am not responsible for any errors or damage caused by changing your registry.
I will try to do this on my colleague´s netbook, and will update this post.
Update 2: Nokia Booklet loves W8CP!
So my colleague was playing around with his netbook and installed the device graphics driver. He had do install it with the Windows device manager. He simply downloaded the driver (here), and pointed the device manager to use this file. So he is now enjoying the Metro apps on his netbook.
Until then, feel free to use the steps above and leave some comments. Most important thing:
Have fun using the Metro apps also on your netbook!
With the release of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, it was only a matter of time that Microsoft releases some new SDKs to us developers. We are starting with the Bing Maps SDK.
Bing Maps SDK for Windows 8 Metro style apps
Microsoft´s Bing Maps team released a new SDK for Windows 8. You can use the SDK free and unlimited during the preview period.
The new SDK supports Java by using the AJAX v7 controls, and provides all standard items like map types, pushpins, infoboxes and tile layers. Additionally there is now a venue Maps module. At the moment there are still some missing bits like directions, traffic and overlays. Your maybe previous used REST APIs will still work and help you to use more features. If you want to learn on an example, you can watch this site.
Of course you can also use C#, C++ or Visual Basic to create apps that are using the SDK. The SDK now supports client vendor rendering as well as full hardware acceleration.You can also use Aerial and Bird´s eye view and traffic overlays within you app. Some features are in this early stage US only. You can learn on an example on this MSDN page.
Yesterday at CeBIT in Germany, Kevin Turner (COO of Microsoft), told us how Windows 8 is ready for business use right from the start. He explicitly invited IT pros to test the recently announced Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
No compromise experience
“Windows 8 will deliver no compromise experiences on a range of devices from tablets and PCs to desktops. It will give people functionality they love and the enterprise-grade capabilities that IT departments demand,” Turner said. “We encourage IT professionals to begin using it to get a firsthand experience of how Windows 8 will give people a beautiful, fast and fluid experience with the mobility and familiarity they need to effortlessly move between what they want to do and what they need to do.”
Microsoft recently often says, that there is no compromise about the user experience. As IT pros like system admins are focusing more on the productivity of the networks and systems they are maintaining, this will get interesting only to be interesting in second place.
Easy integration in existing system structures
This is one of the goals of Microsoft in business use. To reach this goal, Microsoft has focused on a few things.
First thing is of course a great user experience. The Metro interface is introduced to be productive on touch based devices as well as with mouse and keyboard.
Tablets are the second focus. There are so many things where tablets can be used in daily business, like on presentations, showing a customer a preview of recent products and so on. The big advantage here is that Microsoft was able to integrate the possibility of existing Windows 7 software.
Mobility is important: Microsoft solution to this is Windows To Go. A whole Windows installation on a little USB-Device, so users can be equipped with a full, customized Windows copy for working on the go – existing hardware can be reused without being forced to install a new OS.
Security is always important, especially in business area. With Trusted Boot and improved BitLocker drive encryption, AppLocker and claim-based access control help protect corporate data across the client device, the network and back-end infrastructure, says Microsoft.
Virtualization and management is made easy with Windows 8. Be it the well prepared Windows 8 OS itself, or the additional included Hyper-V technology: Windows 8 will help IT pros to integrate the new Windows devices easily into existing infrastructures.
So this is a short overview of the features coming to businesses. A good amount will also focus on apps/software and their integration as well as their backwards compatibility. The time will tell, how the new concept of Microsoft will be adopted also by IT pros for their daily business.
If you want to read more about this and watch a video about the possibilities, you can read a blog post of Erwin Visser, who has demonstrated some of the above points at the CeBIT.
This was the motto today on Microsoft´s CeBit opening press conference.
It was all about Metro. Ralph Haupter, General Manager at Microsoft Germany, explained what this means for Microsoft:
”Design also says something about the state of a company. We used to define ourselves by our software’s functionality. Today the question at Microsoft is how we people can get to grips with this wonderful new digital world and enjoy it, whether we want to entrust it with our data and if we can control it. This is a question of integrated design.”
A homogeneous look on Windows Phone, Xbox and Windows 8
All major products of Microsoft are using the Metro look. Be it the experience on Windows Phone, the new Xbox Dashboard or last weeks previewed Windows 8: Metro leads to an homogeneous look and feel. Also the CeBIT trade show stand is shining in the new Metro look.
Microsoft is facing three critical factors here:
Esthetics of the experience. For Microsoft, working with technology nowadays should be both appealing and enjoyable.
Clarity of the function. IT must stay controllable with a vast number of devices as well as data sources
Intelligence of the blueprint. New the technologies only become flexible and smart, if they are in first place.
The result is shown through the Metro Design. With the consumer preview been downloaded over a million times within the first 24 hours, it is clear the there is a huge interest in the Metro UI. Also for developers the Metro UI has potential:
One of the first German suppliers in the new Windows Store is the Berlin start-up company ”6Wunderkinder”. Their ”Wunderlist” app, a no-frills and easy-to-use Task Manager will soon be available to download. Christian Reber, CEO of the successful company, underlines that an attractive and effective operational concept is key factor for the app’s success. The Metro Design provides the ideal framework here. Plus Windows, which is by far the most popular operating system worldwide. ”We are not only convinced by the Metro Design approach, but also see an enormous potential for our company to reach far more people with our ideas and apps via Windows 8 in the future,” explained Reber.
The new experience will be available in 231 different markets, while using more than 100 languages. This opportunities are only given on Microsoft´s upcoming OS.
Tomorrow there will be a keynote of Kevin Turner, Microsoft´s Chief Operating Officer, at 10 am (EST). He will talk about „What’s Next: IT trends, business opportunity and Windows 8”. You can watch the keynote live at the CeBIT Global Conferences 2012.
Interesting words at the end:
“Windows 8 is also ”Windows reinvented” for a whole new generation of devices. It will be the best operating system for hundreds of millions of PCs, tablets and other devices, and for way more than one billion people across the whole world”, says Ralph Haupter.
I find interesting that Microsoft says “PCs, tablets and other devices”. Maybe this is also another hint of merging the Windows 8 kernel into Windows Phone, or even another Xbox Dashboard upgrade?
If you want to find out more about the CeBIT-News from Microsoft, head over to Microsoft´s official CeBIT site (also fully designed in Metro).
Yesterday I was all day playing around with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (W8CP) as many of us.
Today I wanted to get a bit more serious and tried to install the Windows Phone SDK.
Once downloaded from App Hub, I clicked “Install”, and waited for the SDK to complete . Install went trough, and I was waiting for opening my current project.
But then I was shocked by numerous error messages, all of the regarding XNA plugins and updates. So the dream was over. The SDK does not support W8CP.
I am a very Metro-addicted man, so I was searching for a solution. On Twitter I was tipped by @nikovrdoljak to one part of the solution.
The errors are caused by Games for Windows – LIVE Redistributable
XNA Game Studio installs a version of the Games for Windows – LIVE Redistributable behind the scenes. Some older versions of the Games for Windows – LIVE Redistributable attempt to install and use a file that is being installed by Windows 8, and the older versions of the redistributable are not compatible with the newer version of the file that is installed by Windows 8. Newer versions of the Games for Windows – LIVE Redistributable are compatible with Windows 8, and if you pre-install the new redistributable before installing XNA Game Studio, setup will recognize that it is already there and use the new version instead of trying to install the old version.
The reason this issue also impacts the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 is that this SDK installs XNA Game Studio behind the scenes, which in turn installs the Games for Windows – LIVE Redistributable behind the scenes.
So where to download the actual version? Let´s check this later. I followed the steps shown on Aaron Stebner’s WebLog. But that was not all.
I think more WPDev are willing to try, so here is a checklist:
uninstall all parts of the Windows Phone SDK – Note: there are some bits left after you use the automatic install, so you have to uninstall remaining parts of the SDK manually
do a reboot (that thing you do not want to do once you started playing around with W8CP). Don´t worry, it is faster as on Windows 7 (on my 2 year old ASUS under one minute).
go to the Games for Windows download page, which you can find on this page: http://www.xbox.com/de-DE/LIVE/PC/DownloadClient. Replace the “de-DE”-part with your regional language code, for the US p. e. “en-US” to download the correct version of the redistributable.
start installation
in the middle of the installation, the UAC asks you to allow the installation. Now click on “change, when this message appears” (the original wording might be slightly different, I translated it from German).
pull down the switch to set Windows to not ask you anymore (yes, even if this is not recommended)
now let the installation of Games for Windows –LIVE Redistributable finish.
finally, start installation of the Windows Phone SDK. This time, it takes a little longer than before (probably due to the now working install parts)
if you want to, turn the UAC on again (control panel/more settings/users/settings for user access control)
Congrats, you installed the Windows Phone SDK, but…
you still have to deal with some points:
the SDK currently works only with Visual Studio 2010
the emulator does not work, so you have to debug on device
the updated Windows Phone SDK 7.1.1 (which is only to have a look, not the final version), might afford additional steps
For me it only worked with above mentioned steps. If you had another steps to do or additional information, leave a comment to discuss.
