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I am using Visual Studio 2013 Professional (with a Store developer account connected) and I have a Windows 8.1 Lenovo tablet for which I'd like to try developing Store apps.

I am stuck right now because when I connect my tablet to my laptop (which has Visual Studio) using the USB port, and open "Windows Phone Development Registration" tool, my Windows tablet device is not recognized by it.

Any help in letting me know what I am missing would be greatly apprciated.

Thanks.

Deepak
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  • Tablets are not phones? – Filip Skakun Sep 24 '14 at 17:39
  • I am coming from Android background, where the difference between an Android phone / tablet from the point of view of development / deployment is not as big. – Deepak Sep 25 '14 at 06:56
  • Yes, in the Windows world a tablet is more like a PC than like a phone as opposed to iOS or Android. Please make sure to accept one of the answers or add your own so someone might benefit from this question and answers in the future. – Filip Skakun Sep 25 '14 at 15:21

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It works a bit different with tablets than with phones. If you don't need debugging - you can simply copy the appx onto the tablet and install it there. If you want to debug - you need to install remote debugging tools on it and specify in VS that you want to debug on a remote machine (click the little drop down arrow on the button here:

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Filip Skakun
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  • Hi. Thanks for replying. I copied the appx of my app on my Windows 8.1 tablet and tried to install it using "add-appxpackage", but it failed saying there was no signature present. And, when I built the package from Visual Studio, it did not create the Add-AppDevPackage.ps1 script for me. Please let me know if you see what I am missing. Thanks. – Deepak Sep 25 '14 at 07:12
  • PS: I created my app package with "Do you want to build packages to upload to Windows Store" as "No" - because with "Yes", it says "Your Microsoft Account is not registered to submit apps to Windows Phone Store". (I only have a new, free Store Developer account, and I want to try out / learn for now between my dev machine / test device) – Deepak Sep 25 '14 at 07:12
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    Found the reason why it was not creating the Add-AppDevPackage.ps1 script with a temporary, dev cert - because I was choosing "Windows Phone Apps" from the Visual Studio templates every time! I switched to "Windows Apps" (because I am trying the apps on a tab), and not it generates both the cert and the powershell script, and I am able to install the app on tab and launch it. Thanks a lot for your inputs / guidance! – Deepak Sep 25 '14 at 09:12
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Windows systems aren't locked in the same way as Windows Phones are. You will need a free developer license to run development & test packages on the system, but don't need to use an external tool to generate it.

You can install a developer license with PowerShell by using the "Show-WindowsDeveloperLicenseRegistration" cmdlet. If you create a package for testing in Visual Studio then the Add-AppDevPackage.ps1 script will request the developer license if the system doesn't already have one.

Visual Studio will also request a license for you if you run it on the local system or if you launch the app via the remote debugger.

Documentation links: Run Windows Store apps on a remote machine from Visual Studio, Deploy Windows Store apps from Visual Studio and Get a developer license (Store apps)

Rob Caplan - MSFT
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  • Thanks for replying. I tried to create an app-package from within Visual Studio (2013, Professional), but it created only *.appx, *.appxsym, and *.appxupload files. I googled a bit more and it does look like it should have created Add-AppDevPackage.ps1 script as well as my development license certificate, but these last two things are not created for me. Could you tell me what I am missing? Thanks. – Deepak Sep 25 '14 at 06:59
  • PS: I created my app package with "Do you want to build packages to upload to Windows Store" as "No" - because with "Yes", it says "Your Microsoft Account is not registered to submit apps to Windows Phone Store". (I only have a new, free Store Developer account, and I want to try out / learn for now between my dev machine / test device) – Deepak Sep 25 '14 at 07:13
  • Found the reason why it was not creating the Add-AppDevPackage.ps1 script with a temporary, dev cert - because I was choosing "Windows Phone Apps" from the Visual Studio templates every time! I switched to "Windows Apps" (because I am trying the apps on a tab), and not it generates both the cert and the powershell script, and I am able to install the app on tab and launch it. Thanks a lot for your inputs / guidance! – Deepak Sep 25 '14 at 09:12