News
UWP for Visual Studio 2015 U3 Released for Windows 10 AU
With the release of Windows 10 Anniversary Update, there's now a version of the Universal Windows Platform app development tools for Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 that specifically targets it.
- By Michael Domingo
- 08/02/2016
The Visual Studio team has released an update to its Universal Windows Platform app development tools for the most recent version of Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 that specifically targets the Windows 10 Anniversary SDK. Highlights of this release include improvements to the Store submission workflow and support for large package deployments.
"The Windows 10 Anniversary Update bring 2700+ enhancements to Windows 10 -- including Cortana, Inking, Edge," writes Pete Faraday, a Visual Studio program manager, in a blog post. "This brings an opportunity to build apps for the more than 350 million users running Windows 10 on their desktops, phones, Xbox, HoloLens, and other devices," he adds.
With the release of Windows 10 Anniversary Update, "By default, all projects created using Visual Studio 2015 will now target the new SDK, and users will be able to migrate their existing projects to take advantage of new APIs and features," writes Faraday. There's also smoother integration once projects are associated with the Windows Store. Developers first sign in packages to the Windows Store or via Azure Active Directory for an AAD Store account. The tokens for that package will be enabled for the lifetime of the project.
The UWP Tool update also has advanced remote deployment options, aimed at game developers who make wholesale changes to games on a frequent basis. Faraday notes that there are two ways that game devs can go about remote deployments. "With Visual Studio 2015 Update 3, and the Windows 10 Anniversary Update SDK, you can now copy files to the remote device using a new faster underlying file transfer protocol," he writes. "In addition, you can register a package layout directly from a network share to negate the requirements of file transfer altogether."
Other notable highlights of this release:
- Debugger Improvements: Attach debugger to already-running IoT, XBox, and HoloLens devices from within Visual Studio; and improved XAML UI debugging.
- Design Support for Indirect Resources: Indirect resources can be viewed and used in XAML code, with resources "fully rendered in the designer, have Intelligence support, and preview in the Resources Pane in Blend."
- .NET Native 1.4 Support: "XAML applications and Unity games that use .NET Native 1.4 will have better runtime performance," notes Faraday.
The UWP Tools Update for Windows 10 Anniversary SDK is here.
About the Author
Michael Domingo is a long-time software publishing veteran, having started up and managed several developer publications for the Clipper compiler, Microsoft Access, and Visual Basic. He's also managed IT pubs for 1105 Media, including Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine and Virtualization Review before landing his current gig as Visual Studio Magazine Editor in Chief. Besides his publishing life, he's a professional photographer, whose work can be found by Googling domingophoto.