Wednesday, April 18th  the Windows Store blog announced that in the next significant Windows 8 preview release they will be expanding
their global coverage with 33 additional app submission locales for developers.  

Looking for Great Windows 8 Apps

As you likely know Windows 8 is coming in the near future. You can download, use it, and even develop apps for it today. At this point in time the Windows Store is not open for everyone to deploy, but we are looking for the first wave of great applications which highlight the power of Metro and Windows 8, especially those developers that want to get to market first and build the awareness and brand for their applications.

In order to submit your application today you need a token which is something I can help you get.

Today, you need an invite “token” to register. This begs the question  – How can YOU get a token?

It’s easy! If your app is ready and you want to be among those developers who get to submit to the store early, simply attend one of the 100s of free Application Excellence Labs that DPE and Windows are holding around the world.

Follow these steps to get invited to an App Excellence lab:

1. Create a really great Windows 8 Metro style app (or game) immediately.  Get it as ready as if you were submitting to the store.
2. Get in touch with me michael.johnson@microsoft.com to learn more about getting an invite to App Excellence Lab. 
3. I’ll help you register so you can get your application through our Application Accelerator Labs where the app will get reviewed to confirm it is done and conforms to the Metro guidelines and certification requirements.

Of course, coming to the lab is not all you have to do.  I have to go back to step #1: You need to have a compelling, functional app that follows our UX guidelines, our performance best practices, and our store certification requirements²

This is a great opportunity to not only be first to market with your app, but also to get feedback from a Microsoft Services Engineer to make your app great. If you are serious about creating an application this is a chance that you probably don’t want to pass up.

In addition, our team is holding a series of events and office hours to help you – we want to make sure you have what you need to be successful. You can come learn more about how to build apps for Windows 8 or show up and build your app with one of our evangelists or others in your community available to help you if you need it. You can find more information about our events and availability at…

Good luck. We are looking forward to seeing your apps and helping you to make them great!
Happy Windows 8 coding!!

If you do run in a VM, before you start the steps, understand the basic requirement for this installation.  Additionally the post assumes that you have already downloaded and installed VMware Player.  

• You must have a Hardware Virtualization Technology computer. Make sure your computer support Hardware Virtualization Technology

• Download the correct distribution for your computer processor (32 bit or 64bit), you can download it from official site here.

Step 1. Create a new Virtual Machine

Step 2.  Select “I will install the operating system later”.

Step 3.  You will need to select a Guest Operating system.  At this time you will have to select Window 7 x32 or x64 although you will be installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Step 3a. Confirm that you have selected the correct Version of Windows 7 ( 32-bit or 64 bit) based on your hardware configurations.

Step 4. Allocate at least 1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit).  In order to increase your memory allocation click on Customize Hardware.

Step 4a. Increase your memory to at least the required minimum (1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit). Note that you must leave memory for the Host OS.

Step 5.  Accept the defaults and click next

Step 6. Allocate the size for you Virtual disk.  You will need a minimum of 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit).  Also I selected to “Store virtual disk as a single file”  because I wanted the best performance.

Step 7. Now finish by creating the new Virtual hard disk for Windows 8.

Step 8. Now that we have a Windows 8 virtual disk lets start the installation process.  Select your Virtual Machine and click Play Virtual machine.  this will start your newly created virtual machine. If you are using an ISO you will need to Change CD/DVD Settings.

Step 9.  Select “Use ISO image file:  and Browse to you Windows 8 ISO. Next you will click restart VM so that the new virtual machine will boot from your ISO.

Now we are ready to install windows 8. Now just follow the Windows 8 setup process.

I have included some screen shots for you that will show you the screens to expect during the install of Windows 8

After all of the above steps you now have Windows 8 Consumer preview running!

Microsoft is allowing users to opt in to keep 25GB of free storage while still getting all of the benefits of the new service for a limited time.  Microsoft took the initiative to automatically opted you in to 25GB of free storage if you were already using more than 4GB as of April 1.  To accept the opt in offer just sign in here!  Have fun and enjoy the new SkyDrive!!!

Once you install SkyDrive for Windows, you can access any of your SkyDrive data from your Windows PC.  A new SkyDrive folder is created on your PC and everything you put in this folder is automatically kept in sync between your computers and SkyDrive.com, so you can get to your latest files from virtually anywhere.

Download the new SkyDrive app Now!  and for more information about SkyDrive new release  please visit the SkyDrive blog. 

Have fun with the New SkyDrive for Windows – The easiest way to access your SkyDrive is from your PC!

It doesn’t matter:

If you are a web developer, Windows Presentation Foundation or Silverlight developer, you can develop a Metro style app using the skills you already know (JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, XAML, C#, VB, or C++ ).  This is an amazing opportunity for developers! 

Windows 8 & The Windows Store Changes Everything!

Start building your app now! Be one of the first to take advantage of the broad reach of Windows, best-in-class developer tools, a reimagined user experience, and a built-in Store with industry-leading business terms. 

Windows 8 is the largest developer opportunity, ever.  WINDOWS IS EVERYWHERE!

Please Note: **** You must have Windows 8 Consumer Preview downloaded and installed on your machine in order to develop for Windows 8 Metro Apps*****

HARDWARE (Whether you have a logo PC or you’ve built your own PC, the recommendations for the Consumer preview includes:

• 1 GHz or faster processor
• 1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

For more information visit Running the Consumer Preview: system recommendations

REQUIRED SOFTWARE

• Windows 8 Consumer Preview
• Visual Studio 11 Express Beta

• Download the SDK Samples

As Scott Hanselman states on his blog post Guide to Installing and Booting Windows 8 Developer Preview off a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) you could do a few things to play with Windows 8.

You could:

• Try a virtualization solution
• Swap out your C: drive
• Dual boot
• Boot on real hardware from a Virtual Hard Disk.

Additionally, you could install on a machine as your main OS. If you are looking to install as the main OS on a machine, whether you have a logo PC or you’ve built your own PC, here are the minimum hardware recommendations for the Consumer preview:

• 1 GHz or faster processor
• 1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

For more information visit Running the Consumer Preview: system recommendations

Additional requirements to use certain features:

• To use touch, you need a tablet or a monitor that supports multitouch.

• To access the Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768.

• To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768.

Click here for Windows 8 Consumer Preview: frequently asked questions

However, this post assumes you are looking to use virtualization to install Windows 8 Consumer preview. There are several ways to run Windows 8 Consumer Preview in a virtual environment.  Just to name a few you could use boot from VHD, VirtualBox, Parallels or Boot Camp on a Mac. 

This post is going to provide you with some resources to help you get Windows 8 Consumer preview up and running in a virtual environment.

Before we jump into the virtualization technology you need to visit the Windows Dev Center to download Windows 8 Consumer Preview.  I use the ISO version myself, and either mount as a drive or follow my sociable geek colleague, Daniel Egan’s instructions for making a bootable USB thumb drive. If you need help with creating a bootable USB for UEFI systems please visit my colleague Matt Harrington’s post for creating a Bootable USB drive From an ISO image for UEFI.

First off, visit the Building Windows 8 blog post Running Windows 8 Developer Preview in a virtual environment, which should be relevant to the Windows 8 Consumer preview.  

Second, visit my blog post on using VirtualBox to install windows 8 Consumer Preview. This blog post assumes you have installed VirtualBox software already. 

Next up, we have the ability to use a dual boot setup as a great alternative that preserves your existing OS and setup.  Here’s a helpful LifeHacker article on how to set up dual boot.

If you are familiar with VMware Player you can read a step by step guide on How To Install Windows 8 On VMware Virtual Machine

Additionally, you can visit Scott Hanselman or John Papa’s post on configuring a Bootable VHD to install and run Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Finally, you can visit Mac Tips Now to get some tips on how to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a Mac using boot camp.

There is an additional step if you are a developer ready to build Windows 8 apps. You will need to download and install Visual Studio 11 Express Beta which includes the Windows 8 SDK, Blend for Visual Studio, and project templates.

Before you start the steps, understand the basic requirement for this installation.

• You must have a Hardware Virtualization Technology computer. Make sure your computer support Hardware Virtualization Technology

• Download the correct distribution for your computer processor (32 bit or 64bit), you can download it from official site here.

•  Install Virtual Box and Virtual Box Extension Pack.

1. Create a new virtual machine.

2. Select ‘Windows 8’ as OS version (32 or 64 bit)

3. Allocate at least 1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

4. Create new hard disk or browse to an existing hard disk

5. Choose the type of file to use for your virtual disk.  (I selected a .VHD (Virtual Hard Disk))

6. Choose weather you want Fixed or dynamically (I selected to allocate as it is used to allow my virtual disk to grow.)

7. Assign a name, location and size for you Virtual disk.

You will need a minimum of 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit).

8. Now finish by creating the new Virtual hard disk for Windows 8.

Now that we have a Windows 8 virtual disk lets make a few setting and configuration changes before we start the installation process.

9. Click on the Settings icon to bring up your VM – Settings.

Now select System settings then Acceleration tab and Enable VT-x and Nesting Paging options as shown below.

9a. While you are still in System select the Processor tab to Enable PAE/NX.

You can change the processor numbers according to physical processor cores to meet your requirements based on your machine.

9b. The final under the system setting select Motherboard settings to Enable IO APIC.

Additionally, make sure that floppy is unchecked and network unless you are doing a network installation. 

10. Now select the display settings then video setting tab and Enable 3D Acceleration.

11. Now we are ready to install windows 8.

 You will need to mount the ISO that you download earlier and start the virtual machine. Installation should start normally like Windows

11a. First you will start the newly created Virtual machine

11b. Now you will browse to the Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO that you downloaded earlier.

11c.  Now just follow the Windows 8 setup process.

After all of the above steps you now have Windows 8 Consumer preview running!

Note:  If your VM did not boot to the mounted ISO you may need to actually select the drive under devices. 

Register for one of the DevCamps

DevCamps are coming in 6 cities across the West Region!  Developer Camps (DevCamps for short) are free, fun, no-fluff events for developers, by developers. 

Attendees learn from experts in a low-key, interactive way and then get hands-on time to apply what they’ve learned. 

Campaign Overview

Mostly hosted on University campuses across the West Region, these DevCamps provide both student and professional developers the opportunity to choose a technology and start learning and building applications for it.  Camps covering the web, phone, and cloud platforms will be presented simultaneously, driving buzz, and excitement on campus and within the local developer community, while also providing great opportunities for cross-platform synergy. 

Please Click here for schedule, detailed description and agenda for each camp. 

The CNN App for Windows Phones will provide the latest news and video from CNN’s reporting around the globe. The panorama app will allow sections to be pinned to the home screen and offer a live tile for real-time news updates, and direct access to iReport, CNN’s participatory news community…Read entire article wmpoweruser.com

Nokia users can download it here from the marketplace

Promote your Windows Phone Marketplace apps

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