No sideloading Metro apps on Windows 8?

[Depicus]

Unless business wants a tablet for it's work right? And then they can write business specific metro apps for those tablets and side load them and manage/update them on their own etc etc. Sure metro and the start screen is more for casual media consumption etc but there's nothing to stop a business from buying a number of Win8/WinRT tablets and then writing some of their apps over to it so they can be used without issue via touch etc.

I'm not sure what business's you know but my clients large and small buy the cheapest computers they think they can get away with so the thought of buying tablets made me laugh :)

[jakem1]

I'm not sure what business's you know but my clients large and small buy the cheapest computers they think they can get away with so the thought of buying tablets made me laugh :)

Your client base might be representative of many businesses but clearly not all businesses.

For instance, one of my clients has been trying to integrate tablets into their business for the last six months. They've been trialling iPads and a number of different Android-based tablets and I'm sure they would have loved to be able to include Windows-based tablets as they would have integrated much better with the rest of their infrastructure. I don't know why you'd laugh at the idea of businesses including tablets in the mix of computers and other devices they support.

[Depicus]

Your client base might be representative of many businesses but clearly not all businesses. For instance, one of my clients has been trying to integrate tablets into their business for the last six months. They've been trialling iPads and a number of different Android-based tablets and I'm sure they would have loved to be able to include Windows-based tablets as they would have integrated much better with the rest of their infrastructure. I don't know why you'd laugh at the idea of businesses including tablets in the mix of computers and other devices they support.

Ok maybe I didn't put it how it sounded in my mind. Some business's will use tablets, I developed an app for a car insurance company several years ago for use on a tablet. What I meant was tablets are not going to replace pc's any time soon for business for a few reasons.

1. They are not (at this moment) as productive as a laptop.

2. You really cannot sit with a tablet for 8 hours a day.

Now, yes, there are people who travel and just need quick access and for these people it will be great but the majority of business use is a pc on the desktop and not being able to side load will make things difficult.

[jakem1]

Ok maybe I didn't put it how it sounded in my mind. Some business's will use tablets, I developed an app for a car insurance company several years ago for use on a tablet. What I meant was tablets are not going to replace pc's any time soon for business for a few reasons.

1. They are not (at this moment) as productive as a laptop.

2. You really cannot sit with a tablet for 8 hours a day.

Now, yes, there are people who travel and just need quick access and for these people it will be great but the majority of business use is a pc on the desktop and not being able to side load will make things difficult.

That's fair enough and I don't think anybody would dispute that. Of course, Microsoft agree with you as well which is why the desktop works almost exactly the same as it always has and the majority of business users who need to be productive when creating content (as opposed to just consuming content) can continue to use desktop applications in a familiar way.

[XX55XX]

Do we need to rehash the same tired arguments over and over? I don't get some of you, you moan that you hate metro and don't wnat to use it and now you also turn around and moan that you hate how the marketplace is "locked down" and you can't side load metro apps which you don't even want to use in the first place? Which is it ffs?

The desktop is open, install whatever you want on it, it's not going away anytime soon, Win9 will have a desktop and support Win32 apps, so will Windows 10 I bet. Since MS is running and managing the store, it sets the rules for apps, it's only logical. Now if after RTM someone makes a sideloading metro app tool then great, but the benefits, specially on Windows, are worth the trade off for many many people out there who somehow manage to totally screw over their systems because they installed x app without knowing better and had it **** all over the place.

While I may have my reservations about Metro, I still want Microsoft to make assurances that Windows' current status as a semi-open OS remains. That means allowing the user to install Metro applications from sources beyond the Microsoft App Store.

[George P Global Moderator]

While I may have my reservations about Metro, I still want Microsoft to make assurances that Windows' current status as a semi-open OS remains. That means allowing the user to install Metro applications from sources beyond the Microsoft App Store.

We'll wait and see how it goes, I think and expect that sideloading tools will showup and that you'll just use them to do it and bypass the store. As far as MS allowing other stores to sell apps, maybe that will happen in the future, it's hard to tell right now and they could just be keeping things limited because the winrt APIs aren't mature enough yet. When they do become more mature we could see it open up more. It's like Windows Phone, v7 wasn't so mature so it's limited, 7.5 opened up a bit and now v8 will open up even more as far as what devs will be able to do etc.

[Depicus]

Slightly off topic but has anybody worked out a way to see the output (debug) window while running Metro apps. Seems such a pain to have to keep going up to the top left corner just to find VS to see debug output logs.

[George P Global Moderator]

Slightly off topic but has anybody worked out a way to see the output (debug) window while running Metro apps. Seems such a pain to have to keep going up to the top left corner just to find VS to see debug output logs.

I'd say to use snap but I don't know if the size would be enough for you.

[Depicus]

I'd say to use snap but I don't know if the size would be enough for you.

Sadly as soon as you start debugging the Metro wants to go full screen - going to have another play today but a quick read up looks like you need to constantly switch or remote debug

[George P Global Moderator]

Sadly as soon as you start debugging the Metro wants to go full screen - going to have another play today but a quick read up looks like you need to constantly switch or remote debug

I can understand it going into full screen, since that's the main way you'll interact with the apps so best way to test them right now.

[jakem1]

Sadly as soon as you start debugging the Metro wants to go full screen - going to have another play today but a quick read up looks like you need to constantly switch or remote debug

What happens with multiple monitors? Can't you place VS on one screen and run your Metro app on the other?