The following few posts will chronicle my experience with the newly released Microsoft Windows 8 Developer's Preview, made available as a free download from Microsoft themselves.
Sunday September 25th 2011
Sunday Morning rolls along and I'm thinking great time to see what this puppy can do. I was all set to start delving into the world of Metro Apps when I realized the 32bit version of the Windows Preview I downloaded does not contain the adequate development packages. So off to Microsoft's site to download the Visual Studio 11 Preview package. Well The download is a Smart Installer, though there is a 3 part download you can opt for as well. The complete setup is close to 2GB. So again Another hour or so waiting for it to download.
Once completed it begins to install, it took about another 30 to 40 minutes to finish configuring everything. It was finally done, I could start checking this out, and start getting up to speed in how the Metro Apps work. So Move out to the Start Screen with all the Metro tiles and *whoah!!* 20 Tiles where added to the screen. I realized then and there that the screen simply takes anything and everything from our old trusty Start Menu location and plops it as 150 by 150 pixel tiles.
Anyway, so I run Visual Studio, and all is o.k. It looks interesting. Lets try creating a new project, something simple, a Hello World tile as is customary to do. So I add a single div to the project, (this is a HTML 5 and Javascript Metro App project), configure a few things and try to run and execute to see what it looks like. Well a couple seconds go by, and bam, 2 errors crop up. makepri.exe cannot be found, and the Modern SDK is not there. Well after a lot of digging it turns up, that Microsoft in all its unparalleled wisdom decided to issue only one of the Developer Preview downloads with all the files required to develop Metro Style apps.
The 64bit 4.8GB full download.
Now, I know what you are thinking, how is that a problem, just download that. Well I can't, and many other people can't either. Why You ask? Well I don't have a 64bt computer, so I can't run that. Many people don't have dual layer DVD's to burn, or their drives can't actually burn them. So we choose the alternative: Download the 32bit Windows OS preview, and then install the Visual Studio Preview separately.
However this method leaves you without the essential Metro App development files which is the entire purpose of these previews. I don't understand the logic behind only providing the tools in one of the packages? What's to gain here? I really don't understand. Its like having rollercoaster with a sign that says come all and try it, but once you are inside you can only get the full ride if you have a $20,000 Rolex watch and have been lugging around a very large duffle bag. Everybody else gets just the shortened route.
So that's It for day 2, hopefully day 3 will bring some much needed solutions..
Any comments or questions, feel free to post below.
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