What does it take to run the Windows Phone 8 emulator?

Question

With the release of Windows Phone 8 finally out there, we finally have access to the SDK. I've heard that it requires special hardware or something for the emulator though. What are the system requirements for the phone emulator?

Martin Suchan · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-01T08:47:34.293

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You need Windows 8 x64 Pro or Enterprise, Visual Studio 2012 (or the express edition from the SDK) and CPU supporting SLAT for running Hyper-V - WP8 emulators are running as Hyper-V virtual machines.
(In other words no Linux, or Macs with processors older than the Intel Core i3, i5 or i7, no other edition of Windows, no Visual Studio 2010 or older, no x86 version of Windows, no Core2Duo and older CPUs, etc.)
Edit: You can use Macs for developing for WP8, but only if you install Windows 8 on it.
https://dev.windowsphone.com/en-us/downloadsdk

edited Nov 01 '12 at 08:47

answered Oct 30 '12 at 18:39

Martin Suchan

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See also [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13148828/windows-phone-8-unable-to-create-the-virtual-machine) question for information about running it inside of a virtual machine(nested)... Ah just now realized that's YOUR question. Leaving this comment here for future reference though – Earlz Oct 31 '12 at 17:45
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I just installed and got the same error. I have a Core 2 Duo Wolfdale, running fast and fine... no issues, except for this. Humbug. Forced Obsolescence shows its ugly head. – sheldonhull Nov 03 '12 at 01:38
@MartinSuchan so how to know if my computer supports SLAT ? – onmyway133 Nov 23 '12 at 03:15
Here's the answer about SLAT: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/devfish/archive/2012/11/06/are-you-slat-compatible-wp8-sdk-tip-01.aspx – Martin Suchan Nov 23 '12 at 11:31
@martin - awesome msdn article link . Here's another that kind of shows you what's going on under the hood with the emulator as well. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/devfish/archive/2012/11/27/what-the-hyper-v-wp8-sdk-emulator-and-hyper-v-insights.aspx – Joe Healy Nov 30 '12 at 16:44
Why not Core 2 Duo? Runs fine on my laptop with P7570, so it's not all Core 2 Duos out there. http://ark.intel.com/Products/VirtualizationTechnology – ericosg Mar 06 '13 at 10:02
And I do not have SLAT/EPT support. (hence the link previously also tested with coreinfo). – ericosg Mar 06 '13 at 10:09

Steffen · Answer 2 · 2012-10-31T08:34:56.963

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Intel calls their SLAT technology EPT (Extended Page Table).

Here is a list of EPT enabled CPUs http://ark.intel.com/Products/VirtualizationTechnology

You can also use Sysinternals Coreinfo to check your CPU: coreinfo.exe -v

The console output should be: EPT * Supports Intel extended page tables (SLAT)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc835722

edited Oct 31 '12 at 08:34

answered Oct 31 '12 at 08:06

Steffen

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Thanks for the link at the Intel site but for my precise CPU (Q8300) it says "See SPEC details" which leads to nothing... Any ideas? :( Thx.. – Andrei Rînea Apr 19 '13 at 21:13

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 07 '12 at 05:06

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Be sure to get a windows 8 PRo 64 bit operating system.

I bought a sony VAIO laptop recently and It came preloaded with windows 8 basic OS.

It costs me around 75$ for windows 8 to windows 8 pro upgrade.....

Windows 8 pro is required for running the windows phone emulator as the emulator uses Microsoft's Hyper V virtualization.

edited Nov 07 '12 at 05:06

Nikhil

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answered Nov 07 '12 at 04:49

gctpoy

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Venemo · Answer 4 · 2013-04-28T08:24:53.270

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There are two interesting solutions on the Nokia Developer wiki:

Seems like the first option might be viable for you.

These two approaches also require a processor which supports hardware virtualization.

edited Apr 28 '13 at 08:24

answered Feb 04 '13 at 15:17

Venemo

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What does it take to run the Windows Phone 8 emulator?

4 Answers4

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