How to easily build a development environment for the Windows 8 Cloud Platform

Preparations

Before creating an environment, you need to register a free account on the Windows Azure platform. After the registration is complete, you will be given 90 days of free access permissions. For details about how to register, refer to: free trial of Windows Azure cloud platform (no credit card required)

If you have a Microsoft MSDN subscriber account, you can apply for a one-year Windows Azure account based on your account permissions.

 

 

After you have a Windows Azure account, check whether the Remote Desktop Application (Remote Desktop) is installed on the local machine. In subsequent articles, log on to the cloud platform virtual host through remote desktop for Windows 8 application development.

-For Windows, Remote Desktop is installed by default;

-If you are using Mac or Linux, you can download the remote desktop application here. Linux Mac version

 

Start to build a Windows 8 Development Environment

First, log on to the Windows Azure management platform and create a new Windows Azure Affinity Group and Storage Account to prepare for the subsequent creation of the Windows Azure virtual host,

1. Create Windows Azure Affinity GroupClick "Network" in the left-side menu and select "Affinity Group" on the page"

Click the "Create" button at the bottom of the page to Create a new Affinity Group, enter a unique Affinity Group name, and select the nearest server region based on the country where you are located, for Chinese users, we recommend that you select "East Asia" and click "finish.

2. Create a Windows Azure Storage Account, Click the "Storage" option in the left menu, and then click "New" in the lower-left corner of the page,

Select Data Services => Storage => Quick Create => enter a custom URL, select the Affinity Group created in the previous step, select Enable Geo-Replication, and click Create account in the lower right corner.

 

3. Create a Windows Azure VM,In the left-side menu, select the "Virtual Machines" option. By default, virtual machines is blank,

Click the "+ New" button in the lower-left corner of the page to create a New VM instance,

Select Compute => Virtual Machine => From Gallery. The page will load the operating system image files supported by the current cloud platform,

In the operating system image file list, select "Windows Server 2012, October 2012", and then click the button in the lower right corner,

In the virtual machine setting option, enter the virtual host name. The default login username is Administrator, set the password, and then select "Medium (2 cores, 3.5 GB Memory)" in "Size )", click the button in the lower right corner.

Select "Storage Account" and "Affinity Group" for the VM. You have already set these two items in the previous article. Select them directly from the menu, and set a unique name for the DNS name, this domain name will be used for remote login.

After you click "create VM", the system will go to the image recovery and System Configuration Creation steps. This step is completely automated and requires no developer intervention.

On the Virual Machines page, you can check whether the current host has been created and its running status.

When the status of the VM is "Running", you can create a connection to the VM.

 

4. Create a Windows 8 Development Environment on the Windows Azure Virtual Host

After the VM is created, click the VM name to go to the system resource details page. You can learn about the current system resource usage and host details.

At the bottom of the page, click "Connect" to automatically generate a file with the suffix "rdp", and then prompt to download the file, which is a remote login file, you can use the remote login tool installed in the previous article to import the file. After running the file, you can log on to the Windows Azure virtual host.

Double-click the downloaded "rdp" file, and you will be prompted to connect to the server and enter the user name and password,

The username and password must be the "Administrator" account created previously.

After successful login, you can see the Windows Server 2012 operating system desktop,

To facilitate Windows 8 application development, you need to perform simple settings for the operating system. First, go to "Server Manager ",

Click "Manage" => "Server Manager Properties" in the menu on the right ",

In the pop-up window, select "Do not start Server Manager automatically at logon", so that the Server Manager application will not be re-entered at each start, saving system resources and bandwidth.

Back, In the Server Manager window, select "Tools" in the upper right menu, and then select the "Computer Management" option,

Click it to enter the Computer Management window, right-click the "Users" directory in the menu on the left of the window, and select "New User ...",

In the Add new user window, add the user "Developer" and customize the password. This user will be used as a development account later, because in the cloud platform virtual host, the Administrator cannot be a development account directly, so you need to create this user account.

After creating a user, right-click the "Groups" menu and right-click the "Administrators" user group,

Add a "Developer" user to the Administrator user group,

After setting the user and user group, close the window and return to the Server Manager window. Click "Tools" => "Services".

In the Services window, find the "Windows Audio" service, set "Startup Type" to "Automatic", and click "OK" to close the window.

Select the "Windows Audio Endpoint Builder" service, set "Startup Type" to "Automatic", and click "OK" to close the window.

In the Services window, right-click "Windows Audio" and "Windows Audio Endpoint Builder", and click "Start" to run the two Services.

Return to the Server Manager Main Window and select "Local Server ",

In the window on the right, select "IE Enhanced Security Configuration" and set "Administrators" and "Users" to "Off ",

Then, press the shortcut key "Windows" + R. The Run window is displayed. Enter the "RegEdit" command to enter the registry editing window,

Go to the Registry"Computer \ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Internet Explorer \ Main", Double-click"ApplicationTileImmersiveActivation"Register the key, change the value to" 1 ", and then click" OK "to save and exit.

Return to the Server Manager window. In "Add Roles and Features Wizard", select "Role-Based or feature-based installation" and click "Next" to meet your development requirements, add a Server application. For example, you can add the "Web Server (IIS)" service in this window.

Note that you need to add a Windows 8 desktop style in this window to facilitate subsequent development and debugging of Windows Store applications,

After adding "Desktop Experience", close all application Windows and restart the Windows Azure VM. To restart a VM, follow these steps,

1) Use Alt + F4 to open the exit menu and select "Restart"

2) on the Windows Azure VM management page, select the "Restart" menu to Restart the machine.

 

5. Install the Windows 8 Application Development Tool

It takes some time to add a Windows 8 desktop style. You can monitor the server status on the Windows Azure VM page.

After the host is started, use the remote desktop to log on. This login uses the "Developer" account created previously,

After logging on to Windows 8, use IE to open the online installation page of Windows 8 development tools, and click "Download Now" to install Windows 8 development tools online.

In the prompt window, click "Run". In the subsequent window, you can install the Windows 8 development tool.

After the installation is complete, click "Launch" to enter the Visual Studio activation window,

Click "Register online" to Register with your Microsoft Mail account, and you will get the free product registration code. after entering the registration code, you can activate the Visual Studio development tool.

During the first operation, you will be prompted to enter a Microsoft account to log in and obtain a developer license,

Log in with a Microsoft account. After logging in, you can obtain a free developer license.

After completing the preceding settings, you can start Visual Studio to create the first Windows Store application and start the development of Windows 8 applications.