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I have Windows 7, 64 bit.

I installed the Windows 8.1 SDK from here, and I installed Visual Studio Ultimate 2013. I chose to install everything; the size of the install was around 11GB.

Yet I don't have any of the templates shown here. What am I doing wrong? Do I need to install some other version of Visual Studio, like Express? Do I need Windows 8.1?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ did you install the templates \$\endgroup\$
    – ratchet freak
    Commented Dec 9, 2014 at 14:58
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ratchetfreak No, I haven't but I will do it right now and will let you know if it worked. \$\endgroup\$
    – Sam
    Commented Dec 9, 2014 at 14:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ratchetfreak I did install it and restarted my visual studio but still there is no template. \$\endgroup\$
    – Sam
    Commented Dec 9, 2014 at 15:02

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The official Visual Studio "DirectX" templates are only for Windows Store apps for Windows 8.x and Windows phone 8.x. They do not support Win32 desktop apps.

In order to develop Windows Store apps for Windows 8.1 or Windows phone 8.1 apps, you need:

  • VS 2013 (any edition except Express for Web and Express for Windows Desktop)
  • A Windows 8.1 system

In order to develop Windows Store apps for Windows 8.0 or Windows phone 8.0 apps, you need:

  • VS 2012 or VS 2013 (any edition except Express for Web and Express for Windows Desktop)
  • A Windows 8.0 or Windows 8.1 system

VS 2013 only supports Win32 desktop development when hosted on a Windows 7 system. You can certainly develop a DirectX app on such a system as a Win32 desktop app, but there's no built-in magic template to get you started. You create a standard Win32 desktop app, then add support for Direct3D from there. See Direct3D Win32 tutorial.

PS: The Windows 8.1 SDK is included as part of VS 2013 Express for Windows Desktop, VS 2013 Pro+, VS 2013 Community. You can download it as a standalone as you did as well.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ "VS 2013 only supports Win32 desktop development when hosted on a Windows 7 system" - I'm not too sure about that; my installation of VS 2013 definitely supports Win32 desktop development on Windows 8.1 - maybe you meant something else? \$\endgroup\$
    – Maximus Minimus
    Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 0:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ I mean on a Windows 7 system, you can only do Win32 desktop development. You can't do Windows Store or Windows phone 8.x development on a Windows 7 system. You also can't do Windows Store for Windows 8.1 or Windows phone 8.1 development on Windows 8.0. You can do Win32 desktop development on Windows 7, Windows 8.0, or Windows 8.1 as long as your VS 2013 SKU supports it (i.e. not Express for Web or Express for Windows). \$\endgroup\$
    – Chuck Walbourn
    Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 0:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ChuckWalbourn Thank you very much. I will get windows 8.1 asap then as I was planning to move to windows 8.1 or 10 next year. \$\endgroup\$
    – Sam
    Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 5:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ You may want to check out Direct3D Win32 Game Visual Studio template. \$\endgroup\$
    – Chuck Walbourn
    Commented Jan 6, 2015 at 21:01

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