Many time we need to access files and folders from our applications. The Windows Store apps SDK provides us Asynchronous APIs to use for this service to query files and folders. You have to be familiar with async await calls in order to get started with this.

This post is part of the Windows Store Application Development Tutorial series. Today we will learn how to handle files and folders in your Windows 8 metro applications.

If you are familiar with Windows Phone applications, you might be already aware of Application Bar. Application Bar is used to provide users with quick access to an application’s most common tasks, which are basically hidden when they are not needed.

Today in this chapter we will learn more about Application Bar in Windows Store apps along with integration and design guidelines.

Many of us need to integrate settings page in our applications. All we generally do is by creating a separate page in our project. But Windows 8 provide us a separate settings panel in Charm bar which you can use for your settings page.

In this post we will learn more about it from scratch and integrate it to our demo application. Also, we will learn how to invoke the charm bar to show the settings panel.

In last chapter “Navigate between Pages” we discussed the basics of page navigation, where we navigated from one page to another page using the Frame.Navigate(type, obj). We also discussed how to pass an object as query string parameter.

Today in this chapter we will discuss more advanced page navigation using the LayoutAwarePage which comes with the Grid and Split application template by default.

Let’s begin with our fourth chapter of building Windows Store application development using Visual Studio 2012. In the previous chapters of this tutorial series, we got familiar with this project template and built a basic “Hello World” application.

Today in this chapter we will learn how to navigate from one page to another page in Windows 8 Store applications. So, continue reading.

Today in this tutorial series, we will learn how to develop our first Windows Store application using the C#/XAML template. We will also learn how to build and run it inside a simulator that comes with the Visual Studio 2012 IDE.

Don’t forget to follow the complete tutorial series of Windows Store apps (WinRT) development and share the chapters with your network friends.

Last day in “Getting Started with Windows Store apps Development” we discussed about Windows Store applications and how to setup your development machine to start with the development. We also discussed it’s four different project categories.

Today in this continued series post, we will learn more about project templates in each category and the basic project structure of most used templates.

Based on the discussion with you over twitter and facebook, I am starting with a Tutorial series on Windows Store application development. The tutorial will focus on C# and XAML template to give you proper steps learning this application development.

Today we will kick-off our first chapter of this tutorial series where we will introduce with this technology and setup the developer environment with required tools and other stuffs.

Today we will start working with RadSlideHubTile control recently added to the Telerik RadControls library for Win 8 Metro. Though there are couple of hub tile controls, but today we will start with the basic one named “RadSlideHubTile”.

If you are new to Windows Store app development, you can get the Free trial copy of this library from Telerik to start with this new application development. Continue reading for more information.

You might be aware that, we don’t have any Start button in Windows 8 RTM. As you are not comfortable with the new Start Screen, hence sometime it is difficult to Shutdown, Restart or Hibernate your PC.

In this post, we will create Start Screen shortcut icons to these power options for easy access. Continue for further step-by-step process.

If you have installed Windows 8 RTM, you might have noticed that the “Hibernate” option is missing in “Power Menu”. So you might want to activate this option in your Windows 8 Power Menu to enable the Hibernate in your system.

This blog post will help you to enable “Hibernate” option in your Windows 8 Power Menu. Continue reading to further know about it step-by-step.

Windows 8 RTM is currently available for MSDN Subscribers and also a 90 days trial available for the general users. Microsoft already planned to release it for general consumers availability on 26th October 2012.

Windows 8 has some new sets of keyboard shortcuts which I am going to share here in this blog post. I hope, you will like it. So, continue reading.

Microsoft announced that, today they released the new Windows 8 operating system to the Windows 8 OEM and manufacturing partners. Side-by-side they also announced the general availability of Windows Store today for the MSDN Subscribers.

This is the first step towards the general availability of Windows 8 to the consumer and everyone is now looking for the date (26th October 2012) when it will be available for general public.

During TechEd 2012 Telerik announced their first control library set for Windows 8 Metro application. I blogged about it few days ago and if you didn’t read it yet, you can find it here “First Look to Telerik RadControls for Win8 Metro”.

Earlier this control library set was for few developers through invitation only as it was in Early Adopter Mode. Telerik now released the first beta set of this controls for public download. You can now use these controls to develop your Windows 8 Metro applications. As it is in beta stage, the library is available for free download and once they release the final binaries, we will come to know about the pricing. Till then, try out the controls and read the complete post to find out the downloadable link and other resources.

During TechEd 2012, Telerik announced their first commercial library for building Windows 8 Metro applications. This control library is a set of controls for XAML and HTML apps. User can chose the language of their own choice and deliver a high end Windows 8 enterprise and consumer applications using these controls.

In this blog post, I will describe more about the controls and guide you to kick start with your Metro application development using the Telerik RadControls. The controls set is neither yet released nor available publicly to download. In case you want a special early adopter access, this blog post will help you to get one too.

Today morning, 19th June 2012 Indian Standard Time, Microsoft announced their all new Tablet PC running with Windows 8 operating system. Steve Ballmer (CEO, Microsoft) showcased the new Microsoft branded Tablet PC for the next generation named as Microsoft Surface tablet.

The tablet PC will be available in two different version named “Surface for Windows RT” and “Surface for Windows 8 Pro”. Both will have different configuration. Though the price details are not available yet, continue reading the post to watch a video demonstration of the Surface tablet, screenshots and system specific information.

I am very happy to announce that, www.silverlight-zone.com has completed it’s first anniversary today. We officially launched this portal on 1st January 2011 and continuing our efforts to submit article news daily.

I appreciate the efforts made by the contributors of this community portal and the followers of Silverlight-Zone. Without their support this journey could be very difficult.

This post is not just the celebration of 1 year completion, we are also announcing our first “Contributor of the Month” award. We are happy to see such contributors on-board.

In our last video tutorial “What is the Lifecycle of Windows 8 Metro Style Application?”, we learnt how the Windows 8 metro style application life cycle works using a small video demonstration of states.
 
In this video tutorial we will see a practical example of it using the already available metro applications. Continue to watch the video tutorial series.

Today in this Video tutorial, we will learn about the Lifecycle of Windows 8 Metro style application. We will also learn what are the various states available during the Lifecycle.

Let’s start discussion followed by the video tutorial. An easy way of representation has been added in the video. Let me know your feedback. Don’t forget to share this to your friends and ask their feedback too.

Hope you gone thru my previous video tutorial “How to Create a Windows 8 Metro Style Application using Visual Studio 2011?”, where I demonstrated about Windows Metro Style Application templates, creation of project and it’s project structure. There we also demonstrated one simple “HelloMetroStyleApplication” sample.

In this video tutorial, we will learn about “Package.appxmanifest” file which resides in the Metro application project directory. We will discuss step-by-step about each property page and XML content of this manifest file.