Allow development of Windows Store apps offline - no license required
When developing Windows Store apps, it appears that you must be connected to the internet in order to obtain a 1 month "developer license".
This seems to me to be an unnecessary hurdle to the development process. My employer has an explicit policy that prevents dev machines being Internet connected.
I understand the license is probably an anti-piracy measure (or some means to stop users deploying apps outside the Store), but seems overly heavy-handed for a development environment.
MS, please don't just assume that all your users are Internet connected, all the time. Can we have this fixed pronto, please.
L-Diddy
shared this idea
18 comments
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Lance
commented
a license is only one issue...what about links to http resources such as winjs - how are we supposed to use those libraries if we don't have an internet connection?
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SC
commented
I'd like to take this further - get rid of the mandatory licenses altogether. Give users a "big red button" like the one in OSX and Android that allows applications to be installed outside of the store.
I realize the walled garden makes sense for security and financing the lower cost of Windows RT to OEMs, but judging by Windows 8 the approach has failed. Developers are flocking to other platforms and the rest are being scared off.
Ditch the Visual Studio license requirements and just unlock the machine for the user instead on non-RT devices.
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sinand99
commented
Microsoft, please fix this stupidity! I wanna develop win8 apps in an offline machine and share it with my friends without using your ****** microsoft store.
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Richard
commented
I'm avoiding win 8 apps until it all matures and MS realise that following Apple style walled garden approaches isn't a great plan. The dev license thing was the final stopping point - this was after realising that flat lifeless zero gradient or differentiation is the "recommended" style now.
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scottbilas commented
At least give us a way to force refresh the license. That way when I am on a long train ride without internet I don't have my work suddenly stopped by an expired license, because I could have forced it to refresh before leaving.
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Edvard Holst
commented
This limitation is ridiculous... Please provide an offline method for deploying developer licenses.
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Jason M
commented
I wish they fixed it! It's quite frustrating!!!
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Gerard
commented
This is a big concern for education centers. I am developing a course that includes Windows Store apps development, and that licensing feature is just a big mess. I can't require all students to have a Microsoft account, or always have an Internet access for on-sites.
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Jani Nevalainen
commented
At least it should have some grace period, because there's no way of knowing when it pops up, and it sucks when you've travelled half a world to customer premises, where's no network connection, trying to debug the problem and suddenly you are not able to do anything because of license issues. There's nothing quite like the feeling when you're in a mine a mile underneath the surface and get this message.. It takes a day to get back up to surface.
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Juan Carlos Galvez
commented
It seems they are not going to fix this, take a look here:
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/762946/cannot-request-offline-developer-license-for-visual-studio-2012-windows-store-app#tabs -
Martin Suchan
commented
As far as I know you only need to be online for acquiring the dev license, then you can work offline.
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Juan Carlos Galvez
commented
Not exactly the same idea, the other one is asking for the suppression of the license, I'm asking for a way to obtain the license off-line, for example: via e-mail
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LMK commented
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L-Diddy
commented
For anyone wondering if installing Windows 8 Enterprise will be a workaround for acquiring a dev license (given that it allows sideloading), it isn't :( (half day wasted).
Come on MS hurry up and fix this.
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Mark Soltys
commented
It's already going to be a challenge to convince companies / customers to use Windows 8 apps. If I recommend developing a new windows store app but in order to build it I'll have to connect our development network to the internet, I'll get laughed out of the room.
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Craig Callender
commented
I have customers that have the same development requirement.
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Benjamin Galaxy
commented
Amen. Let's get this fixed already. Kind regards, every developer in the US Federal Government.
