Ebooks are a great way to learn in your own free time. But have you downloaded these free e-books for developing apps on Windows Platform? In this post, we have tried to collect all known free e-books on Windows Phone and Windows Store app development (including Windows Universal Platform and Xamarin).
You can find direct links to download them. Some of them are available in multiple formats like PDF, MOBI, EPUB etc. Links to download Code Samples are also included wherever available.
Free e-books – Windows App Development
We tend to keep this list up-to-date with latest released books. You can find many other free e-books my Microsoft Press on Microsoft Virtual Academy.
Creating Mobile Apps with Xamarin.Forms
Author: Charles Petzold
1187 pages
Written by legendary author Charles Petzold, this 1200-page ebook is a deep dive for C# programmers who want to write applications using a single code base that targets the three most popular mobile platforms: iOS, Android, and Windows, encompassing the Universal Windows Platform and Windows Phone.
Microsoft Platform and Tools for Mobile App Development
Author: Cesar de la Torre and Simon Calvert
67 pages
This book outlines the E2E platform from Microsoft that forms the critical capabilities for organizations selecting technologies and tools for a Mobile Application Development Platform (MADP) and Rapid Mobile Application Development (RMAD). It also describes the core decision factors that organizations should consider, and it outlines the technical capabilities available within Microsoft solutions and products.
Programming Windows Store Apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript (2nd Edition)
Author: Kraig Brockschmidt
1,311 pages
An in-depth ebook on writing Windows Store apps using HTML, CSS3, and JavaScript on the Windows 8.1 platform. The ebook includes 20 chapters and 4 appendices. More Details
Download
PDF | EPUB | MOBI | Code Samples
Location Intelligence for Windows Store apps
Author: Ricky Brundritt
421 pages
Dive into the world of location intelligence and the different options for creating location aware applications for Windows 8.1 platform. More Details
Download
PDF | Code Samples
Channel9’s Windows Phone 8.1 Development for Absolute Beginners
Author: Bob Tabor
360 Pages
If you are an experienced developer this PDF provides skimmable reading content of Channel9’s Video course Windows Phone 8.1 Development for Absolute Beginners.
Download
PDF | Code Samples
Windows Phone 8 Development Succinctly
Author: Matteo Pagani
243 Pages
A free e-book by Syncfusion which covers most of the important concepts to develop a Windows Phone application, from the basic ones (like the XAML, the application lifecycle, etc.) to the most advanced ones (like background tasks, geolocalization and speech APIs)
Download
PDF & Kindle Format
.NET Technology Guide for Business Applications
Authors: Cesar de la Torre and David Carmona
70 Pages
This guide will help you select the right Microsoft development technologies and approaches for your custom .NET application development, depending on the priorities you have for your application and business domain. It is targeted to decision makers, software architects, development leads, and developers who are involved in selecting which technologies to use for their applications and projects, and specifically covers custom enterprise application development, although independent software vendors (ISVs) might also find the information and recommendations useful. More Details
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PDF
Windows Phone 8 Programming in C#
Author: Rob Miles
70 Pages
The book tells you how to develop applications and games using XAML and XNA using MonoGame. It will serve as a good introduction to Windows Phone development for an experienced C# developer.
Download
PDF
Developing an Advanced Windows Phone 7.5 App that Connects to the Cloud
Authors: David Britch, Francis Cheung, Adam Kinney, Rohit Sharma
208 Pages
Get familiar with how to design and implement advanced applications for Windows Phone that take advantage of remote services to obtain and up-load data while providing a great user experience on the device.
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PDF
Programming Windows Phone 7
Author: Charles Petzold
1013 Pages
A slightly old one now but the core concept are still relevant. Learn the basics of writing applications for Windows Phone 7 using the C# programming language with the Silverlight and XNA 2D frameworks. More Details
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PDF | EPUB | MOBI | Code Samples
.NET Book Zero
Author: Charles Petzold
267 Pages
This ebook is an introduction to C# and the Microsoft .NET Framework for programmers who have experience with C or C++ and would serve as a foundation for developing Windows Phone and Windows Store apps with C#. More Details
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PDF | XPS | Code Samples
The C# Programming Yellow Book (Rubber Duck Edition)
Author: Rob Miles
267 Pages
The C# Yellow Book is used by the Department of Computer Science in the University of Hull as the basis of the First Year programming course and is provided free of cost by Author Rob Miles. More Details
Download
PDF
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Do you know of other free e-books that are available for Windows app developers? Do let us know about them and we will make sure to update this list.