How to do Windows Store App development with using Home Edition

Question

I have keen interest in developing Windows Store App, but after doing some R&D over the internet I came to know that it can only be done by the users who have Windows Edition other than Home. Because, the Hyper-V is not supported for the Home edition of windows.

I must tell here that, I have genuine copy of Windows Home Edition so switching to other professional edition may cost me much and is currently out of my scope.

Is there any other way, to proceed with programming the Windows Store App?

Answer 1

Using Windows Home Edition, you cannot test your Windows Store app using an emulator because the emulator requires Hyper-V, which of course is not part of Home Edition.

However, this should not prevent Visual Studio from working, nor you from being able to write Windows Store apps. For testing purposes, you should be able to deploy the app to actual hardware. This will preclude being able to test device characteristics that you don't have represented in actual hardware, but you can still attempt to code your app to handle those differences (aspect ratio, resolution, etc.).

All that said, I will note that upgrading your copy of Windows to a version with Hyper-V should not be that much of a hardship, if it's actually necessary. Its cost is less than a day's work for a professional programmer, and whether you are a paid professional or not, you can certainly consider your time worth sometime if you intend to deploy a real, commercially-viable app to the store.

Conversely, if you don't intend to deploy a real, commercially viable app to the store, then who cares if it works on other devices? You can even just test on your PC.

See also the related Developing Window Store Apps in Visual Studio 2013 on Window 7 64-bit without emulator, which addresses the same basic question, albeit in a slightly different context.