In the previous blog post we created “Windows phone XAML C1.SLN”. To begin, open this solution from Visual Studio.

In the solution explorer on the right side double click on “WMAppManifest.XML” on the left side window click on the capabilities tab on top.

 Be sure to read my previous post, Part One: Design Style Programming & XAML in Windows Phone before moving on.

Open Visual Studio, File --> New Project --> Online --> Enter “phone XAML” in the search box on the top right corner.

One of the greatest advantages of developing Windows Phone apps is templates. When you install the Windows Phone SDK it comes with default templates which you use to create your app. All the templates conform to the Windows Phone design guidelines and come with some starter code and design for you to get started. Another great advantage is that there are hundreds of different types of templates available online for you to choose the template that best matches your app design.

On Monday and Wednesday this week, I walked through a step by step guide to getting started developing Windows Phone apps and conceptualizing and planning your apps. Now that you have set up the environment, let’s start building an app with the tools. One way to develop great looking Windows Phone apps is to separate the graphical elements from the logic and XAML. Windows Phone SDK tools support this style of programming.

Today's post is written by Kiran Balijepalli, a Microsoft Technical Evangelist for Windows Phone. He has more than 16 years of global technology leadership experience in desktop, web, cloud and mobile platforms. You can find all of Kiran's Microsoft Student blogs here, and he can be found on Twitter as @KiranKBee.

In Monday’s post I walked you through the basics of learning to build apps using the Windows Phone Getting Started Guide. In today’s post I am going to highlight the top focus points to keep in mind before you start designing your app. Sometimes it is quite possible that your previous approaches to writing and publishing a Windows Phone app to the Windows Phone Store haven’t quite resulted in what you anticipated. In most cases it is always good to start with a fresh mind and attitude, call it a “Do-Over.”

Your app is your mark! It should be intuitive, highly functional and present a rich visual experience to your user. Always do thorough research of your Idea before you start working on it. Here’s a step by step guide for starting to build your app.

This week we’re happy to welcome Kiran Balijepalli, a Microsoft Technical Evangelist, as a contributor to the Microsoft Student TechNet blog. Kiran is a passionate technology professional who comes with more than 16 years of global technology leadership experience in desktop, web, cloud and mobile platforms. He has hands on experience in supply chain, manufacturing, ERP domain based product leadership and application architecture design. As part of his role at Microsoft, Kiran drives Windows Phone adoption, app development, deployment and app quality enablement strategy for Windows Phone to worldwide academic audiences.