Beginning Visual Basic 2012

Chapter 20

Windows 8 Apps

What You Will Learn in this Chapter

• What are Windows 8 Apps?
• Built-in controls
• Your first Windows 8 Apps
• Using styles to handle layout changes

Wrox.com Code Downloads for this Chapter

The wrox.com code downloads for this chapter are found at www.wrox.com/remtitle.cgi ?isbn=1118311813 on the Download Code tab. The code is in the 311813 C20.zip download and individually named according to the names given throughout the chapter.

With the release of Windows 8 comes Windows 8 Apps. Developers using Visual Studio 2012 can build these next generation applications and release them to the Windows Store to sell to users around the globe. Sound familiar? Google and Apple have been working with developers building and releasing apps to Google Play and Apple's App Store. In the summer of 2012, Apple announced more than 650,000 apps in its app store. By late 2011, Google's Play housed over 500,000 apps. In its short time, the Windows Store already has more than 100,000 apps (in June 2012). As you can see from the numbers, there is a lot more room for Windows 8 apps.

Windows 8 applications are built to be touch friendly and run on many devices. These new types of applications move away from the normal design of mouse-clicking driving the interface design for actions. Now, developers must think of the use of fingers, pens, and yes a mouse, too, to use and navigate applications. Think about using a tablet instead of a desktop for Windows 8 design (although your app can ...