Chapter 1

A Glimpse into the Future

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

  • Understanding the Windows 8 difference
  • Navigating in Windows 8
  • How to develop a Windows Store App
  • Building a Hello Windows App
  • What type of Windows Store App is best for you?

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THE GAME CHANGER

In a developer’s life, you have a handful of moments in which a new “game-changing” technology release actually lives up to the hype. This could be new hardware or software, but it is especially game-changing when it’s for new operating systems. Often a new OS is just a more reliable working version of the one that came before it with several new visual upgrades. It is rare that an OS release changes the game so much that developers must reboot their knowledge and think about creating apps in a “different” way. This happened with the original release of Windows, which gave MS developers a graphical user interface with a windowed environment. It happened again with Windows 95 with the introduction of the 32-bit operating system and with Internet Explorer that hosted new computing features, including better support for windowed gaming through DirectX and more memory, larger hard drives, and more powerful programs overall.

Now with the pending release of Windows 8, developers are on the forefront of yet another major evolution in ...

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