Can Windows Phone 8.1 or 10 applications be created in Visual Studio 2017

Question

Can Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows Phone 10 applications be created in Visual Studio 2017?

Windows Phone 8.1 applications created in VS2015 are not loaded in VS2017. Instead "(incompatible)" text is displayed in Solution Explorer (I get the same behavior for Windows 8.1 applications).

(This question is not about Xamarin projects)

Answer 1

VS2017 doesn't support Windows Phone 8.x or Windows 8.x applications, only UWP. Windows Phone 10 application you're asking about is actually UWP app for Windows 10 Mobile, so VS2017 can do that.

VS2015 supports both types, however you won't be able to target newer versions of SDK and .NET native toolchain for UWP.

Answer 2

From the doc. Other "no support" elements are listed here as well. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/porting/port-migrate-and-upgrade-visual-studio-projects

Windows Store/Phone apps - Projects for Windows Store 8.1 and 8.0, and Windows Phone 8.1 and 8.0 are not supported in Visual Studio 2017. To maintain these apps, continue to use Visual Studio 2015. To maintain Windows Phone 7.x projects, use Visual Studio 2012.*

Answer 3

From the declined suggestion posted to UserVoice.

Visual Studio 2015 continues to be a productive developer environment for maintaining Windows 8.1 Store apps. Visual Studio 2017 installs cleanly side by side with Visual Studio 2015, allowing you to maintain your existing Windows 8.1 Store apps in Visual Studio 2015, and to use the latest tools when it comes time to migrate your apps forward to Windows 10.