In order to configure your Windows Phone 8 development environment, you will need the following:
Windows 8 operating system or any higher compatible Windows versions.
Windows Phone SDK 8.0, which includes a standalone Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Phone, Windows Phone emulators, and other useful tools to profile Windows Phone applications. The Windows Phone SDK can also work as an add-in to the Visual Studio 2012 Professional, Premium, or Ultimate editions.
In order to download Windows Phone SDK 8.0, go to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35471.
Tip
Visual Studio for Windows Phone is the official Microsoft IDE for Windows Phone development. It is a complete development environment to create Windows Phone applications and has many features, some of which are as follows:
Source code editor
User-interface builder
Templates for Windows Phone projects
Testing and debugging features on Windows Phone emulators or real...