Windows 8 Development on a Mac with Parallels

by Van 12. March 2012 01:59

At Build, I was very excited about Windows 8 and Metro Apps. I had some ideas for some Metro Apps. Then, I went home and life happens; no Metro development.

Two weeks ago I decided I want to have one of my App ideas in the Window Store this month (March 2012). I started working on my App idea.

I have been using my Mac Book Pro for development and Parallel for my virtual environment. At Build I was using Parallel 6 the latest version at the time. While I was able to load Windows 8 Developers Preview into Parallel, I could not run metro apps. Since then Parallel 7 has been released and Metro Apps run fine.  Anyway I started working on my app.

On March 1 I downloaded Windows 8 Customer Preview. I tried to load into Parallel; it loaded however I could not do anything. I then took a VM with the Windows 8 Developers Preview and updated it with Windows 8 Customer Preview and it worked fine. There were some minor problems but nothing stopping me from developing a Metro App. On March 5 Parallel issued an update which fixes some on the minor issues and also the VM I created from scratch with Windows 8 Customer Preview is now working.

About Van

Van, a Senior Web Developer for Innervisions Software, Inc. since 1996, started programming Mainframes using COBOL, JCL for AT&T in 1979. While at AT&T, Van was part of many development teams that produced enterprise level applications and systems using CICS, IMS and other mainframe technologies. 

Van bought his first personal computer in 1982, an Apple II+, and started to write programs for home use in Applesoft (Basic Microsoft created for the Apple II) . 

Van first started working with Microsoft technologies using Access 1.0 and Visual Basic 3.0. In 2000, Van attended VS Live in Orlando where he was first exposed to .Net. He started programming .Net with Visual Studio .Net Beta 2. He became an Independent Consultant in 1996 and started Innervisions Software, Inc. 

In 2003 he wrote his first professional ASP.Net app. Since 2004 Van has been subcontracting on an IRS project using ASP.Net, VB.Net, and SQL Server.


He spends his spare time working on the web site for Prince William Special Olympics which was created using Dot Net Nuke.   Van is currently working on a Silverlight app for Prince William Special Olympics to manage their volunteers.


Van has a BA in Mathematics from Lehman College in New York City and a MS in Computer Science from George Washington University. Van holds MCP certifications in Visual Basic, Access, ASP.Net and SQL Server.

Month List

Page List