I get asked all of the time what is needed to develop for Windows Phone 8 so I thought I would do a blog post on it to make it easier.
Of course you need the SDK. which you can find here. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35471
System requirements
Supported operating systems: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro
- Operating system type:
- Windows 8 64-bit (x64) client versions
- Hardware:
- 6.5 GB of free hard disk space
- 4 GB RAM
- 64-bit (x64) CPU
- Windows Phone 8 Emulator:
- Windows 8 Pro edition or greater
- Requires a processor that supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
If your computer meets the hardware and operating system requirements, but does not meet the requirements for the Windows Phone 8 Emulator, the Windows Phone SDK 8.0 will install and run. However, the Windows Phone 8 Emulator will not function and you will not be able to deploy or test apps on the Windows Phone 8 Emulator.
That last part SLAT is very important. If you want to find out what SLAT is and how to check to see if you are compatible. How To Geek has a great article on it.