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Hardware and Software Requirements WITHOUT using Emulator

Hi there,
I'm luckily invited as a wave 1 developer, but before purchasing it,
I would like to confirm if it's required to have Win 10 in my PC, if I choose to use HoloLens directly for developing, but not via an emulator.

So far, I only have Win 7 in my PC, and I hope I can still develop apps in Unity or VS.
Thank you.

Best Answer

Answers

  • Jimbohalo10Jimbohalo10 ✭✭✭
    edited April 2016

    Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate with Service Pack 2 is needed and you will need to install Hyper-V Manager. Then re-install Service Pack 2 to make sure you have the latest Hyper-V. Windows 7 standard Home will NOT work. Until 16th July 2016 you can have free upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 Professional to Windows 10 Professional.
    Check your Bios will support Hyper-V, by running the Windows 10 compatibility program

  • @DavidKlineMS said:
    Short version is, yes, Windows 7 is a supported development platform.

    The complete answer is (from the below linked page):
    "The Windows 10 SDK works best on the Windows 10 operating system. This SDK is also supported on Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2. Note that not all tools are supported on older operating systems. "

    The full system requirements are documented here.

    Thanks!
    David

    Thanks for your reply!

    I just checked my PC in the office that it's Win 7 Enterprise with SP1,
    but as mentioned by @Jimbohalo10 , is SP2 required? and is Hyper-V also required if I'm not using emulators? I thought Hyper-V is for virtualization of Win 10 to run an emulator on it.

    Thank you.

  • ahillierahillier mod
    edited April 2016

    Hi @b97501031,
    Hyper-V is only needed if you're using the emulator.
    I would suggest downloading the tools (VS and Unity) to make sure that they run on your Win7 machine. You should be able to build one of the completed tutorial projects (all tutorials have a 'Completed' or 'Catch-up Chapters' folder which contains the final code) in Unity and then load and build the project in VS. While you won't be able to deploy the project until you have your HoloLens, this should help to verify that your dev PC will work.

  • Hi @ahillier ,

    Thanks for your advice.
    I just tried to start from Unity and VS 2015.
    From Unity, it ask for a Unity license to activate 5.4 beta, which I don't have it now ...
    From VS 2015, it requires at least Win 8 for HoloLens templates ...
    Seem like I need more investments on this ...

  • @b97501031 said:
    Hi @ahillier ,

    Thanks for your advice.
    I just tried to start from Unity and VS 2015.
    From Unity, it ask for a Unity license to activate 5.4 beta, which I don't have it now ...
    From VS 2015, it requires at least Win 8 for HoloLens templates ...
    Seem like I need more investments on this ...

    I found that I need to activate an Unity 5 personal license first.
    Thanks for all your help.

  • @b97501031 said:

    @b97501031 said:
    Hi @ahillier ,

    Thanks for your advice.
    I just tried to start from Unity and VS 2015.
    From Unity, it ask for a Unity license to activate 5.4 beta, which I don't have it now ...
    From VS 2015, it requires at least Win 8 for HoloLens templates ...
    Seem like I need more investments on this ...

    I found that I need to activate an Unity 5 personal license first.
    Thanks for all your help.

    Just would like to share that I ended up using my backup PC which is in Win 8.1 ...
    I tried either Unity or DirectX but both bumped into system requirement problems. (For Unity, it will show "You have to use Windows 8 or greater for this build" and the build button is disabled. For DirectX, it requires at least Win 8 for HoloLens templates when installing the emulator as mentioned)
    Please advice me if there is anyone developing in Win 7 successfully. Thank you!

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