Are there any options for Windows 7 owners to develop Windows Phone 8 apps?

Question

I recently got a Nokia Lumia 920 and am very interested in developing for it. However, I only have Windows 7 installed on my computers and it looks like I need Windows 8 to use the Windows Phone 8 SDK. I thought perhaps I could use the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK and make Windows Phone 7 apps for it, but I got to the part where I need to register my phone and it says "Unable to connect to phone. Please check that the Zune software is running and that Zune's sync partnership with your phone has been established." This question has an answer saying I cannot get Zune for Windows Phone 8 anymore, so it looks like this option is out of the question...

Is there any way to develop for Windows Phone 8 with Windows 7 without having to upgrade to Windows 8?

Answer 1

First, trying to install the WP8 SDK (which uses Visual Studio 2012) on Windows 7 isn't possible. Also, Windows Phone 8 devices can't be deployed to by Visual Studio 2010 (part of the WP7 SDK). But there are a couple of other options...

Windows 8 via VMWare

Windows 8 can be installed and run from within VMWare, and you can even deploy to your WP8 device via USB. I would recommend a decent processor (Core i5 or Core i7) and allocate at least 4GB RAM to the VM...

Nokia Developer Wiki - Windows Phone 8 SDK on a Virtual Machine with Working Emulator

Dual-boot Windows 8 and Windows 7

I used this method in the early days before Windows 8 was RTM. The main advantage is that you're running on actual hardware (as opposed to being emulated) so performance is better, especially with the emulator.

Lifehacker - How to Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 Side By Side

Note: Which ever option you choose - If you decide to run the Windows 8.1, when the Windows Phone 8 SDK is installed, you must install the Visual Studio 2012 Update 3 for the SDK to function properly.