Metro Style Apps are the new form of Apps, designed for Touch based computing devices like Tablet PCs. If you are an App developer who develop apps for various platforms like Windows, Android or iOS, you may want to try your hands on Windows 8 Metro Apps. Microsoft expects majority of the future Windows apps to be developed as Metro Apps.
Tools for developing Windows 8 Metro Apps
To start developing Windows 8 Metro Style Apps, you need a few tools and utilities. The first tool you need to develop Metro Apps is, Windows 8 itself. To develop and test Metro Apps, you need to install Windows 8 in one of your development computers. Just like you can write a C# application using notepad and compile using tools through the command prompt, you can do the same for Metro Apps as well. However, using such raw methods to develop the apps may take several times more efforts than using some of the productivity tools from Microsoft.
Visual Studio 2012: IDE to develop Windows 8 Metro Apps
Visual Studio 2012 is the integrated development platform from Microsoft that allow you to develop Windows 8 Metro Style Apps fast. It provides various drag and drop options to quickly develop Metro Apps. Visual Studio is not a free software, but you can get a light weight version of Visual Studio 2012 for free. The free edition of Visual Studio is called “Visual Studio Express”. Even though some of the advanced features are missing in the Express edition, it has everything you require to get started with Windows 8 Metro App development.
Metro App SDK, Design Tools, sample apps, Live SDK and more
In addition to the Visual Studio to develop Metro Apps, Microsoft offers a Software Development Kit and various other SDKs to help you develop advanced features and integrate your Apps with other services. If you are using Visual Studio 2012 Express Edition, the Windows SDK is already included with it and you do not need to install it separately.
You may find various Metro App SDKs and tools from Microsoft Website.