This free ebook provides comprehensive coverage of the platform for Windows Store apps. Since its second preview in August, we’ve added the remaining chapters on live tiles, notifications, background tasks, background transfers, networking, devices, printing, WinRT components, accessibility, localization, and the Windows Store itself. The final ebook contains 17 chapters. And of course all of the earlier chapters have also been reviewed and refined—over 800 pages in total, along with new and updated companion content! It has been a wild ride these last few months to finish a book of this magnitude at the same time we were building up to the public release of Windows 8. At moments like these one would like to stop, let out a long “Whew!” and rest for a while. But truly, this is just the beginning! I primarily wrote this book for those developers who have yet to delve into Windows 8 but who will certainly be very interested in the platform as it gains momentum with consumers in the coming year especially. There’s going to be a great market out there for the wonderful apps you’ll be creating, and it is my delight to help serve as a guide to that territory.
