VS Community 2015 - No Windows Phone Emulator Installed

Question

I get the following error when trying to build (Debug > Windows Phone > Device) the default Cordova TypeScript project :

No Windows Phone 8 emulators installed. Please install Visual Studio 2013 with Windows Phone 8 tools selected to install the emulators

Note: I was using the release candiate of Visual Studio 2015 and just installed the trial version of Visual Studio Community 2015.

Installing Visual Studio 2013 Windows Phone 8 tools can't be the correct solution.

Answer 1

I've downloaded and installed wpsdkv80_enu1.iso from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35471. It is Windows Phone SDK 8.0 and Emulator and it's working fine with Visual Studio 2015 Community

If you want to only test universal apps, you don't need to download WP SDK 8.0. You can debug universal apps directly from VS by switching platform to Windows Phone(universal) and choose Windows 8.1 Emulator. But it expects Emulators for Windows Phone 8.1 to be installed.

If didn't installed Emulators for Windows Phone 8.1 you can do so in Program and Features -> Visual Studio 2015 -> Change.

Answer 2

Thanks for upgrading to the RTM VS 2015. Unfortunately, you do require VS2013 for Windows 8 emulators to be installed. They aren't available on VS 2015 or there is no stand-alone installer for the emulators. But you should be able to deploy your Windows 8 application on Windows 8.1 emulators, if that helps.

Answer 3

Correct me if I'm wrong:

• The Windows Phone 8.1 emulators provided by VS2015 are only good for testing Universal Windows apps (APPX) and nothing else.
• Windows Phone 8.1 legacy apps (XAP) can only be emulated by installing the Windows Phone 8.1 Updated Emulators separately.

You won' find this piece of information anywhere on the MS reference sites.