Install XNA 4.0 Visual Studio 2010 Windows 8

Question

I installed windows 8 a month ago and now want to add xna game studio 4.0 to my visual studio 2010 ultimate. I downloaded the xna installer from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=23714 and ran the setup. First it said something about compatibility issues but the setup continued. after it finished I restarted the computer and wanted to make a xna project but its not showing in the c# drop-down menu. So i took a look at the %programm files(x86)%/Microsoft viual studio 10.0/Common 7/IDE/extensions/Microsoft, but there was no xna folder. Did I do something wrong or is windows 8 having some issues with vs2010 and xna 4.0?

Solution 1

XNA is not officially supported on Windows 8 and never will be because Microsoft simply gave up on it.

This solution explains how to install XNA on Windows 8 but clearly if you want a stable development environment you will have to develop on a Windows 7 machine but remember that even if you are skilled on XNA, the Framework itself is doomed and bound to disappear.

If you want to keep developing with C# on Windows 8 I can only recommend you move to MonoGame which is an open source implementation of the XNA 4 API for multiple platforms using the CLR or Mono so basically most of your XNA knowledge can be reused in MonoGame.

Solution 2

IF you realy want to keep on programming with XNA 4.0 there is a work around. Just install the following program (official windows program):

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/LIVE/PC/DownloadClient

This is the windows marketplace client which seems to help a lot, after installing try installing xna again it should work, atleast it did fine on my PC which is running windows 8.

Comments

[jmistx]

This is how we do it: blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2012/02/29/10274694.aspx

[jmistx]

This should be the accepted answer as it's correct. And more details here blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2012/02/29/10274694.aspx

[dreamwagon]

I installed VS2010 XNA for windows phone and the install failed. Just installed the Live client and repaired the VS installation and it works fine. This is definitely the correct answer.