How to set project properties for an app project for Windows Phone 8

  • Article

[ This article is for Windows Phone 8 developers. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation. ]

You can set or change project settings for your app in Project Designer in Visual Studio. To see the options that are available in Project Designer, see the screen shots in this topic.

This topic contains the following sections.

Editing project properties in Project Designer

The settings that you specify in Project Designer include info about your app, and options for debugging.

To edit project properties in Project Designer

  1. In Visual Studio, in Solution Explorer, right-click the name of the open project.

  2. From the context menu, select Properties. Project Designer opens in a new Visual Studio tab.

Project Designer pages

Project Designer has multiple pages. This topic contains info about each page of the designer that contains settings that are specific to Windows Phone projects.

The following pages of Project Designer contain settings that are specific to Windows Phone projects.

  • Application

  • Debug

The following pages of Project Designer don’t contain settings that are specific to Windows Phone projects.

  • Build

  • Build Events

  • Reference Paths

  • Code Analysis

Application page of Project Designer

On the Application page, the settings that you can specify include the target Windows Phone version and the name of the XAP file that you deploy to devices or to the Store.

For more info about the Supported Cultures settings, see Culture and language support for Windows Phone and the other topics in the section Globalization and localization for Windows Phone 8.

Debug page of Project Designer

On the Debug page, the settings that you can specify include whether the app is deactivated or tombstoned when you leave the app while debugging. For more info about the Tombstone upon deactivation while debugging setting, see How to test app state changes for Windows Phone 8.

In the Debugger Type section, you can choose whether to debug the managed code or the native code portion of your app. If your app communicates with a background agent, you can also choose whether to debug the managed code or the native code portion of the background agent independently. You can debug both the app and the background agent in the same debugging session. However you cannot debug both the managed code and the native code portions of your app, or both the managed code and the native code portions of your background agent, at the same time.