Smart Device Support in Visual Studio 2012

Question

I saw this question here already one yeare ago, but now as Windows Embedded Compact 2013 has been released, there should be some information about Smart Device support within Visual Studio 2012.

At the moment, we are working on industrial automation solutions using VS 2008 and WEC 7 (===> I'm not asking about Windows Phone development). We are interested in upgrading to VS 2012, but I could not find any information about

a) when Smart Device development will be shipped and

b) whether WEC 7 development will still be supported in VS 2012, as WEC 2013 board vendors are a rare species ATM

Does anybody know details about some release roadmap?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

a) Never. Microsoft has no intention of ever supporting anything but WEC 2013 (and later if they exist) in the newer versions of Visual Studio (2012 and beyond). For WEC7 your option is, and will remain Studio 2008.

b) WEC7 is not supported now is Studio 2012, so there's no "still" to be continued.

So what that means is that for development you use:

CE 6.0R3 --> Studio 2008
WEC 7 --> Studio 2008
WEC 2013 --> Studio 2012