Windows_10_LogoMicrosoft today released Windows 10 Technical Preview tools for its Visual Studio development environment, giving developers a chance to start building programs for the Windows 10 universal application platform.

Win10_Windows_ProductFamily_Web“Our goal with this release is to give you the opportunity to experiment with the cool new platform capabilities while we continue working to finish Windows 10,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post today.

Developers will be able to build universal Windows apps, which can run across different devices like PCs, phones, tablets, and Xbox One consoles. Those who want to use the tools will need to be a part of the Windows Insider Program, since they’re designed to run on Windows 10. In addition, the tools require Visual Studio 2015 Community Technology Preview (CTP) 6, which was released last month. For more info on how to download everything, check out the information here.

As with all of Microsoft’s other prerelease software for Windows 10, this package includes some known bugs that may cause problems for application development. This isn’t suited for use on production machines just yet.

Microsoft is set to release Windows 10 for consumers this summer, and will be offering more details to developers at its Build conference in San Francisco late next month.

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