Getting a developer license for Windows 8 Consumer Preview
[This documentation is for preview only, and is subject to change in later releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]
If you have a developer license for Windows 8 Consumer Preview, you can develop and test Windows Metro style apps before the Windows Store certifies them. Developer licenses are free, and you can obtain as many as you need. You don’t need a Store account to get a developer license, but there might be advantages to having this kind of account. For example, you qualify for a longer developer license if you have a Store account.
Before the Store will accept a Metro style app, you must package it and get it certified according to certain rules. If the Store hasn’t certified a Metro style app, it can’t run on Windows unless you have a developer license. (This restriction doesn’t apply to desktop apps.)
The license is provided on a per-machine basis. After you install a developer license, you can run unpackaged projects on your local machine by choosing the F5 key in Visual Studio, just as you can with desktop apps. You can also install a developer license on a remote machine or device and then install, run, and debug packages that don’t have to be certified. The developer license doesn’t affect the runtime environment, only setup and deployment. The developer license also doesn’t affect apps that the Store has already certified or desktop apps.
If the Store has already certified your app, you can use the developer license to update the app without getting the Store to sign the update.
Acquiring a developer license through Visual Studio
When you run Visual Studio 11 Beta for the first time, you will be prompted to obtain a developer license. Read the license terms, and then choose the "I Accept" button. In the User Account Control (UAC) dialog box, choose the "Yes" button if you want to continue.
After you install a license on a machine, you won’t be prompted again on that machine unless the license has expired (or you removed it) and you try to run an uncertified Metro style app or create a project.
When you first run or debug a Metro style app on a remote computer or device that’s directly connected to your development machine, you are prompted to install the remote debugging tools and a separate developer license on the remote machine.
Acquiring a developer license at a command prompt
If you aren’t using Visual Studio 11 Beta, you can acquire and manage developer licenses at a command prompt by calling the following methods in wsclient.dll:
AcquireDeveloperLicense
CheckDeveloperLicense
RemoveDeveloperLicense
You can invoke the methods by using PowerShell cmdlets. The AcquireDeveloperLicense method opens the Developer License terms dialog box, the UAC dialog box, and the Windows Live ID dialog box so that you can acquire a license. The CheckDeveloperLicense method indicates whether the current license is still valid. The RemoveDeveloperLicense method removes a developer license from the machine.
The following example shows a basic PowerShell script to manage the developer license:
Add-Type @"
namespace CheckDeveloper
{
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
internal static class NativeMethods
{
[DllImport("WSClient.dll", EntryPoint = "CheckDeveloperLicense", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern int CheckDeveloperLicense(out System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComTypes.FILETIME filetime);
}
public class Program
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComTypes.FILETIME ft;
int iRet = NativeMethods.CheckDeveloperLicense(out ft);
long hFT2 = (((long)ft.dwHighDateTime) << 32) + ft.dwLowDateTime;
DateTime dtExpiry = DateTime.FromFileTime(hFT2);
Console.WriteLine("CheckDeveloperLicense returned {0}, filetime is {1}", iRet, dtExpiry.ToString());
}
}
}
"@
[CheckDeveloper.Program]::Main($null)
Detection of fraudulent use
Microsoft can detect fraudulent use of a developer license on a registered machine. If Microsoft detects fraudulent use or another violation of the software license terms, the developer license might be revoked. The monitoring process helps ensure the overall health of the app marketplace.
Microsoft doesn’t monitor the use of apps that the Store has certified. For more information, see the software license terms.
Risks
If you have a developer license, you can run Metro style apps that haven’t been certified by the Store, and you bypass the protection that certification provides. A computer on which a developer license is installed might have a bigger risk of virus or malware infection than a computer that acquires apps only through the Store.