and the design aspects are irrelevant - I'm only writing on how to write a basic Windows 8 application, not how to design your Windows 8 applications. Although if you want guidance on how to properly design your Windows 8 applications for conformity to the standards of the new Windows 8 user experience and interface, see the wide-range of tutorials at msdn.com . Let's get started... When you've created your new project in Visual Studio, in the MainPage.xaml file, the following markup code is used to determine the controls used on the application and where they are positioned. Most of the XAML code was generated automatically as controls are added on the form from the Toolbox on the left. All controls in the XAML code below are part of the Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls class namespace that is part the Windows Runtime. For example, if you access the msdn documentation for the Button class in the Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls namespace, you'll see all the information regarding the Button control, including its constructor, events, methods and properties. When you set the text in the Button using the Content XAML attribute, you are making use of the Content property found here as part of the msdn documentation. First and foremost, we are importing three separate namespaces - namely Windows.UI.Popups, Windows.Storage and WIndows.Storage.Pickers. The former is to be able to make use of message dialogues, and the latter to be able to display the open and save file dialogues, and to open and save files on the computer.