PSA: You can develop Windows 10 UWP apps on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1

[colinkiama]

For people who don't know yet, unlike with windows phone 8.0/8.1 development, where you couldn't make apps on PCs running Windows 7 or lower, Windows 10 development allows you to create apps on Windows 7 and 8.1 using Visual Studio 2015 (With a few limitations of course).

On Windows 7: No XAML Designer, no emulators or simulators. You can only deploy (debug) to another Windows 10 device (over usb, device portal etc).

On Windows 8.1: Same as above but technically you can debug on the PC you are using via emulators.

If you don't believe me, here's proof: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/F...on-windows-81-or-windows-2012?forum=wpdevelop

https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/productinfo/vs2015-compatibility-vs

P.S. If you can, please make this thread a sticky

 

[sensboston]

Personally, I can't recommend this: I tried and actually created and published one simple app (Barometer for Lumias 950x) by using this method.
However it's really hard to work without working XAML designer - I used 8.1 UWP project and copy/pasted XAML code to W10 UWP project.

So, my conclusion: yes, this will work but much better to update your PC to Windows 10 as it supposed to be (and recommended by Microsoft)