#VisualStudio 2013 and Windows Phone app development

Visual Studio 2013 Preview is already here and many of you already downloaded it and started exploring the new features and enhancements introduced in this version. Few people asked me that, they are not able to build Windows Phone 7 applications in Visual Studio 2013 even after installing the WP7 SDK.

So, what is the issue? How can we build Windows Phone application that targets OS 7? This short post is for those developers who are seeking this information.

Visual Studio 2013 supports Windows Phone application development but only targets OS version 8. That means, using Visual Studio 2013 you can build applications for Windows Phone 8 but can not do anything for Windows Phone 7 customers. In case you want to build WP7 apps, you have to use either Visual Studio 2010 or Visual Studio 2012.

Remember: Both the installation of Visual Studio can run side by side in a single environment but make sure to install the earlier version first, else you might screw up the whole installation.

In my opinion, Microsoft should provide support of Windows Phone 7 in Visual Studio 2013 final version as many developers still builds apps targeting OS7 and there are lot many users who actually uses devices with Windows Phone 7.x operating system. Hence, the latest version of the IDE should have compatibility to the earlier releases. I could be wrong on this. If you have feedback, drop a line below.