How to get started with windows phone SDK 8.1?

Question

Situation:
I am running windows 7 professional and I am trying to start developing windows phone 8.1 application.
I have downloaded :

• VS2013_RTM_DskExp_ENU.iso that is Microsoft Visual studio 2013 Express RTM.
• Since this is RTM update and windows phone 8.1 developement needs 2 RC updated, I downloaded VS2013.2 RC.exe, which is online installer for the update mentioned. To download the full local installation package (3.43 GB), I ran E:/vs/"VS2013.2 RC.exe" /layout on command line.

For installation:

• I first installed Microsoft Visual studio 2013 Express RTM
• Then 2 RC update.

Both of them installed sucessfully with no errors. But when I open Visual Studio 2013>VS Express 2013 for Desktop from start menu, and File>New Project>Installed>Templates>Visual C#, there is no option for windows phone development. That is what I want.

Question: How can I get the options to develop windows phone 8.1 in visual studio 2013 express using C#?

Answer 1

Windows 8.1 is required to develop for Windows Phone 8.1

From the SDK download page:

For Windows Phone development:

• Windows Phone 8.0 development requires Windows 8.1 (x64) or higher
• Windows Phone 8.1 development requires Windows 8.1 (x86) or higher
• For the Windows Phone emulators, Windows 8.1 (x64) Professional
  edition or higher, and a processor that supports Client Hyper-V and
  Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)