Thursday, October 29, 2015

A Developer's Guide to Windows 10



Please note (August 2015): This updated Windows 10 content reflects the most current information, as of August 12, 2015.


Do Windows 10 and Visual Studio 2015 make a developer’s job easier? You bet they do! And now that the Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform (UWP) is here, find out how simple it is for you to create outstanding end user experiences tailored to a wide array of device types, from the smallest Lumia phone to the new 84" Surface Hub, all running the same app!

Walk through the core developer scenarios with experts Andy Wigley and Shen Chauhan, and see how to take an app from the Visual Studio 2015 designer all the way to the Windows Store. Find out what all the excitement is about, and watch cool demos, including how to cloud-enable your in-store app, a look at implementation and diagnostics in Visual Studio (to help you stay productive), and an exploration of Cortana integration, speech-to-text input, and inking. Get the details on everything you need to know to build compelling app experiences, with less work than ever before, on Windows 10, which is expected to run on a billion devices in the next few years!

(NOTE: To refresh your basic knowledge of development languages, check outProgramming in C# or explore the XAML modules in Developing Universal Windows Apps with C# and XAML.)
1 | The Universal Windows Platform
Take a look at how Windows 10 brings a single platform experience to many different devices and how Windows tooling and UWP APIs provide developers with a great opportunity to create amazing apps.
2 | XAML Controls in UWP
Investigate how XAML controls, including the new RelativePanel and SplitView controls, are used in a UWP app to accomplish your Windows 10 design considerations.
3 | Windowing and In-App Navigation
See how windowing and resizing can be applied to your app layout. Explore in-app navigation, how it works across Windows 10 devices, and how to offer back navigation UI across UWP apps.
4 | Adaptive UI
Learn design principles for Windows 10, how they make design easier with adaptive controls, and how to approach designing UWP apps. Build an adaptive UI using View States and Adaptive Triggers.
5 | Adaptive Code
Dig deeper into the code that supports the ability of UWP apps to run on any Windows 10 device and that can provide a great user experience. Look at Platform Extension SDKs, and explore adaptive code.
6 | Application Lifecycle
Take a look at the lifecycle of a Windows 10 UWP app. Cover the basics of suspension, resuming, and termination, and then see how to handle lifecycle events and how to request extended execution.
7 | Improving XAML Performance
See how to improve the performance of your app UI by taking advantage of XAML features, like phased rendering and deferred loading.
8 | New Tooling in Visual Studio 2015
Take a tour of the great new tools in Visual Studio 2015, including performance diagnostic tooling, battery usage monitoring, and the XAML Live Visual Tree inspector.
9 | Microsoft Edge and the Web Platform
Investigate benefits provided by the Edge browser, and see how to develop packaged and hosted web apps for the new web app platform. Find out how to use some of the new APIs and Cortana integration.
10 | Improvements to XAML Data Binding
Explore data binding within a XAML-based UWP app, starting out with basic data binding and then looking into some new features and techniques, like compiled binding, available with Visual Studio 2015.
11 | Background Execution
Dig into the implementation of background tasks, including how they can be used to support your app, using multiple background tasks, triggers, and the time allotted to background tasks.
12 | Building an Azure Back End
Build a connected experience that makes users' data available, regardless of device. Look at using roaming data and OneDrive and how to integrate Azure App Service Mobile Apps within your apps.
13 | Live Tiles, Notifications, and Action Center
Engage your users with Live Tiles and notifications when your app isn't running. Learn how to use the new adaptive template available with Windows 10. Integrate your app with Action Center.
14 | More Personal Computing
Take user interaction beyond the keyboard and mouse with Windows Hello and face recognition, speech input, and integration with Cortana, inking support, adding sharing, and drag and drop.
15 | App-to-App Communication
See how app-to-app communication will work in your UWP apps. Get context on how this worked in Windows 8.1, and then review URI activation, sending files, query URI support, and App Services.
16 | App Services
Find out what App Services are, explore scenarios, and then look at App Services Clients and App Services Servers. Find out how to debug an App Service, and hear details on App Service lifetime.
17 | Porting 8.1 Apps
Get an overview of the migration paths for bringing your apps to Windows 10. Then, dig deeper into scenarios for migrating Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1, and Windows 8.1 universal apps to Windows 10.
18 | Submitting Your App to the Store
Package your app and submit it to the Windows Store, a single store for all the different types of Windows apps. Explore the opportunities for monetization, such as advertising and in-app purchases.
Recommended Resources & Next Steps
Take this opportunity to explore these topics in greater detail, at your own pace.
Learn

  • Explore the Universal Windows Platform.
  • Take a look at XAML controls in UWP.
  • Explore windowing and in-app navigation.
  • Learn about adaptive UI.
  • Get the details on adaptive code.
  • Look at the application lifecycle.
  • Find out about XAML performance.
  • Dig into new tooling in Visual Studio 2015.
  • Hear about the Microsoft Web Platform.
  • Learn about improvements to XAML data binding.
  • Take a look at background execution.
  • Hear about building an Azure back end.
  • Get to know Live Tiles, Notifications, and the Action Center.
  • Hear about App Services.
  • Get details on porting Windows 8.1 apps to Windows 10.
  • Learn to submit your app to the Windows Store.
  • Take personal computing beyond the mouse and keyboard.
  • Explore app-to-app communication.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

The New Microsoft Surface Book


The New Microsoft Surface Pro 4


Learn more at surface.com

Monday, October 12, 2015

What's a Universal Windows app? and Guide to Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps

A Universal Windows app is a Windows experience that is built upon the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), which was first introduced in Windows 8 as the Windows Runtime. At the core of Universal Windows apps is the idea that users want their experiences to be mobile across ALL their devices, and they want to use whatever device is most convenient or productive for the task at hand.

Windows 10 makes it easier to develop apps for the UWP with just one API set, one app package, and one store to reach all Windows 10 devices – PC, tablet, phone and more. It’s easier to support a number of screen sizes, and also a variety of interaction models, whether it be touch, mouse & keyboard, a game controller, or a pen.

read more: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/dn726767.aspx

Guide to Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps, learn about Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps that can run across a wide variety of devices.

In this guide, you'll learn about:
  • What a device family is, and how to decide which one to target.
  • New UI controls and panels that allow you to adapt your UI to different device form factors.
  • How to understand and control the API surface that is available to your app.
Windows 8 introduced the Windows Runtime (WinRT), which was an evolution of the Windows app model. It was intended to be a common application architecture.

When Windows Phone 8.1 became available, the Windows Runtime was aligned between Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows. This enabled developers to create Universal Windows 8 apps that target both Windows and Windows Phone using a shared codebase.

Windows 10 introduces the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), which further evolves the Windows Runtime model and brings it into the Windows 10 unified core. As part of the core, the UWP now provides a common app platform available on every device that runs Windows 10. With this evolution, apps that target the UWP can call not only the WinRT APIs that are common to all devices, but also APIs (including Win32 and .NET APIs) that are specific to the device family the app is running on. The UWP provides a guaranteed core API layer across devices. This means you can create a single app package that can be installed onto a wide range of devices. And, with that single app package, the Windows Store provides a unified distribution channel to reach all the device types your app can run on.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Developer’s Guide to Windows 10

Windows 10 is here! Windows 10 represents a drastic shift in approach to operating systems... one that makes developer's lives radically more easy.

The biggest thing Microsoft's done here is made it easier than ever for developers to build outstanding end user experiences tailored to a wide array of device types, from the smallest, wildly affordable, memory constrained Lumia phone to the new 84" Surface Hub, and beyond to compelling new experiences like Microsoft HoloLens.

Given that the Windows OS is currently run by over a billion users today, and Microsoft's committed to Windows 10 being on a billion devices in the next 2-3 years, this presents an enormous opportunity for developers to more easily reach larger audiences with outstanding experiences with less work than ever before.

Join developer experts Andy Wigley and Shen Chauhan as they give you a live, two day whirl-wind tour of the Windows 10 developer platform. Andy and Shen will give you detail on everything you need to know in order to build compelling application experiences on Windows 10. You'll leave fully prepared to build an outstanding app on Windows 10.

Visit: Developer’s Guide to Windows 10


Windows 10 development for absolute beginners

The absolute beginners series is back for Windows 10. It doesn't matter if you're a pro dev or just starting out, there's valuable content for everyone. If you're looking for a faster pace content that dives deep, the Developer's Guide to Windows 10 series may be for you.

Your guide through the series, Bob Tabor from http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/, walks you through how to create Windows 10 apps on the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) – meaning you'll gain access to all the Windows 10 screens: PCs, phones, tablets, and even on a Raspberry Pi, HoloLens, and Xbox. Bob will challenge you with exercises, help you build a cheat sheet for future reference, and explain the techniques and concepts being used along the way in a simple, friendly manner.

This only thing that the series assumes is that participants understand the basic language fundamentals of C#; if you don't have this covered, you should take a look at the C# Fundamental series first.

Source code: https://github.com/Windows-Readiness/AbsoluteBeginnersWin10

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

5 Minutes with Visual Studio 2015 Community Installer

A quick 5 minute-ish video about installing Visual Studio 2015 Community.

New features in Visual Studio 2015

Richard Campbell hosts the next of the DEVintersection countdowns with guest Robert Green, discussing some of the great new features in the recently released Visual Studio 2015. Roberts talks about the productivity enhancements in VS2015 that can get you working on the right code in the right place faster than ever.

source: Channel 9: Visual Studio 2015 with Robert Green