This is the first of a two part Series on Installing the XBox One Developer Mode App on your XBox One Console, and deploying your first App to it…

Part 2 – is available! Create and Deploy a UWP app to the Xbox One

During the opening keynote at //Build 2016, Microsoft announced how to convert your existing Xbox One into a Development Kit. The This is achieved by downloading and installing the Xbox One Developer Mode app from the Xbox One App Store and following along with the instructions…

The Xbox One Developer Mode app, or Dev Mode app for short, allows you to deploy UWP apps from Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 directly.

There’s a few things to bear in mind tho… Primarily, this is a preview experience, so Microsoft has attached a big warning to the process that your existing games and apps may break… Further, as the XBox is updated as part of the process, the only way to exit the program, is to Factory Reset your XBox One… So bear this in mind before venturing any further!

When your Xbox is in Dev Mode, you won’t be able to run any of your existing Games or Apps without switching the Console out of Dev Mode again.

More information about the whole process can be found in the faqs here; http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/apps/developer-mode-activation-app-faq

Here’s the steps…

  1. Find the App in the XBox App Store by searching for “Dev Mode”:01 - Search
  2. Install the Dev Mode App:02 - Installing
  3. Launch the App and CAREFULLY READ the “Before You Begin” information:03 - Before you Begin
  4. Get your Console Activation Code:04 - Activate Console
  5. Goto https://developer.microsoft.com/xboxactivate and enter your Activation Code:05 - Activate Console Online
  6. Refresh the Page and check that your console is activated:06 - Console Activated Online
  7. Meanwhile, your Xbox will tell you that it needs to update:07 - Update
  8. Hit the Close button, and your Console will show the updating screen. The update is 784MB, and plenty of people are downloading this update right now… So be prepared to WAIT…. It took me over 2 hours!:08 - Updating
  9. While you’re updating your XBox, go ahead and download Visual Studio 2015 Update 2. Choose whichever version is suitable for you:09 - Download Visual Studio
  10. Install / Update Visual Studio 2015:10 - Install Visual Studio
  11. Eventually, your Console will restart:11 - Console Restarts
  12. The Console will then Apply the Update:2016-03-31 00.44.50
  13. Once the Update has been applied, you’ll be returned to the Desktop;2016-03-31 00.55.33
  14. Streaming from the Xbox App will now be broken (So apologies for the quality of the screen grabs at this point!);13 - Streaming Not Working
  15. You now need to switch to Developer Mode as your console will currently be in Retail Mode. So go ahead and start up the Dev Mode Activation App… When I first tried this, I got the following screen telling me there’d been an “Unexpected Error”;2016-03-31 00.55.00
  16. However, later on, the app received an update which cured the issue;2016-03-31 08.55.21
  17. Once the app is updated, go to your Games and Apps, scroll down to Apps, and across until you find the “Dev Mode Activation” app;2016-03-31 08.56.00
  18. Running this will tell you that your console is already activated, and ask you if you’d like to switch to Developer Mode;2016-03-31 08.56.30
  19. Hit the Big Green Button, and your console will restart in Developer Mode…2016-03-31 09.00.39
  20. You’ll need to re-add your account to your XBox at this point as it’s using a different storage area now;2016-03-31 09.01.35
  21. Once you’ve signed in, open the Dev Home App from the main dashboard to launcher the Developer App;2016-03-31 09.05.43

And you’re all set… Your console is now in Developer Mode, and you can start Creating and Deploying UWP apps!

In the next blog post, I’ll show you how to Create and Deploy your very first UWP app to the XBox One… Watch this space!

About the Author:

Leave A Comment