UWP on Xbox One

Get started building apps for the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) on Xbox One.

UWP on Xbox One supports developing both apps and games. You don't have to be part of a developer program to experiment, create, and test games or apps on Xbox. All you need is a developer account in Partner Center. When you are ready to publish and sell games on Xbox One or take advantage of Xbox Live on Windows 10, you need to join the Xbox Live Creators Program or be an ID@Xbox developer. If you plan to be an ID@Xbox developer, we recommend applying to the program first before registering for a developer account. For more info, see Developer program overview.

This section includes setup steps, a guide through the authentication process, information about installing the required versions of Visual Studio and Windows 10 tools, and the steps to build, run, and debug your first simple application.

Topic Description
Getting started Getting started guide for UWP on Xbox One development.
What's new Highlights new features in UWP on Xbox One.
Xbox Developer Mode activation Explains how to enable Developer Mode on Xbox.
Disabling Developer Mode on Xbox One Explains how to disable Developer Mode on Xbox One.
Set up your UWP on Xbox development environment Describes the steps to set up and test your Xbox One development environment.
Samples Pointer to the GitHub location – TVHelpers - where you will find useful XAML and JavaScript samples to get you started developing for Xbox. Samples include a full XAML Media App template as well as automatic controller navigation, rich media playback, and search for web-based technologies.
Known issues Known issues with UWP on Xbox One.
FAQ Frequently asked questions related to UWP on Xbox One.
Tools Describes the Xbox One-specific tool Dev Home, how to use the Windows Device Portal, and how to set up Visual Studio for development. This section also guides a new developer through their first Xbox UWP application and explains how to use the Fiddler tool to view network traffic.
App Dev on Xbox event The App Dev on Xbox event is a great starting point for developers new to building apps on Xbox. Watch the recorded sessions and read the blog posts from the event.
Designing for Xbox and TV Describes best practices for designing an app that will be viewed on a TV and will use a controller for input.
Xbox best practices How to turn off mouse mode, draw to the edges of the screen, and disable scaling.
Using speech to invoke UI elements Describes best practices for supporting Voice Enabled Shell in UWP apps on Xbox.
System resources for UWP apps and games on Xbox One Describes the resources available to your application when it is running on Xbox One.
Introduction to multi-user applications Describes multi-user applications (MUAs) on Xbox One.
Automating Xbox One Development tasks The WindowsDevicePortalWrapper project on GitHub provides a library that allows you to automate common development tasks such as deploying or launching an app. The project includes a sample, XboxWdpDriver.exe, that demonstrates how to use the APIs for common tasks.
Bringing existing games to Xbox Based on what technology your game is built on top of, we can direct you to step-by-step instructions that can expedite the process of bringing your game to Xbox using the UWP.
UWP features not supported on Xbox Describes UWP feature areas that are not yet fully functional on Xbox One.

See also