64 bit versus 32 bit for Windows phone development

Question

I just spent all day loading up my new windows 8 laptop with all my dev tools. Only to find out that my OS version was the 32 bit version.

When I tried to run the emulator for my windows phone 8 app I got an error saying I needed "Hyper-V". Apparently "Hyper-V" is only available on the 64 bit version.

I have a two part question. How do I develop using my current 32 bit OS and dev tools? From what I'm reading I can still test with a registered phone. Any information on how to do this?

The other question is, do I bite the bullet now and upgrade to the 64 bit OS (which is a reformat and re-installation of everything)?

Thanks

Answer 1

I would bite the bullet and upgrade to 64 bit now. The full system requirements for Windows Phone 8 development are here. Besides needing 64-bit Windows 8 Pro or higher to use the Windows Phone 8 emulator, the other "gotcha" is needing a processor that supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT).

PCs that support SLAT are Intel-based processors that start with i (e.g., i3, i5, i7, i9) or any CPUs based on the Nehalem, Westmere, or Sandybridge micro-architectures. 

To determine if your machine supports SLAT, perform the following steps:

1. Download SysInternals/TechNet CoreInfo at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc835722
2. Run "coreinfo -v"
3. If you have "*" next to "EPT", you should be good. If you have a "-" next to EPT, your processor doesn't support SLAT.