Setting Up IDE For Universal Windows Apps (UWP)

Before we start learning UWP we must have IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to develop universal apps. IDE for universal windows apps is Visual Studio, which is Microsoft product so it has very easy and user friendly setup and environment. But for absolute beginners this article could be of help if you stuck somewhere during setting up environment especially on Windows 8 or 8.1.

On Windows 10

Idea of universal apps came with Windows 10, it’s recommended to build Universal Windows apps. Any version of Visual Studio 2015 could be used to develop UWPs. You can download Visual Studio here. Which version? Well it depends on your need. This article is for Enterprise edition.

 

Here are the steps,

1. Run vs_enterprise.exe you have just downloaded from here.
   
   
2. Leave all options as it is but if you don’t want to install all features deselect the items you don’t want but make sure:
   
   
• “Universal windows app development tools” is checked.
  
  
• If you expand this option you may choose to install Emulator or not. Leave it checked if you don’t have Windows 10 phone to test apps,
  
  
  
  
3. Click on “Run” button at bottom right. (I have already installed it so mine is “Updated”).
   
   
4. Visual Studio will start installing. Click finish when done.
   
         
   
   
5. Open Visual Studio and go to File, then New Project.
   
         
   
   
6. Now go to - Installed, Templates, Your Language (e.g. Visual c#), Windows, then click Universal. Name your project and click OK! You are good to go with Universal Windows apps,
   
         

On Windows 8.1

If you are on Windows 8.1 you need to install update 2919355 to install Visual Studio 2015. If this update won’t work install all available updates and try again to install this update. If installed successfully, rest of the procedure is same as given above for windows 10! Happy learning!

Note: There are some bad points about Windows 8.1.

• You won’t have the option to see GUI against your XAML code. You can just write code in XAML but will not able to see it unless you deploy it on some Windows 10 device.
  
  
• You have only option to deploy apps on Remote Machine if you don’t have Windows 10 phone or emulator.

JumpStart

Some useful links to start with UWP: 

• https://dev.windows.com/en-us/develop
• https://dev.windows.com/en-us/getstarted
• https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/dn894631.aspx