How to stop and restart an app in Windows Phone Emulator
November 07, 2012
Applies to: Windows Phone 8 | Windows Phone OS 7.1
You can stop and restart apps in Windows Phone Emulator without closing the emulator window. This enables you to deploy apps more quickly, to access the Start screen, and to test how well your app maintains its state when deactivated.
We recommend that you always test your app going in and out of the dormant or tombstoned states. For additional information, see App activation and deactivation for Windows Phone.
To stop an app
To stop an app running in the emulator, do one of the following:
In the emulator, click the Back button.
If the active page of the app was not the app’s start page, you may have to click the Back button more than once to exit the app.
In Visual Studio, on the Debug menu, click Stop Debugging or press Shift+F5.
The app exits and the Start screen opens in the emulator. This ends the current debugging session, but leaves the emulator open so you can run your app again quickly.
To deactivate an app
In Visual Studio, right-click the project in Solution Explorer and select Properties to open the Project Designer.
On the Debug page, leave the Tombstone upon deactivation while debugging check box unchecked if you want the app to go into a dormant state when deactivated. Check the check box if you want the app to be tombstoned when deactivated.
On the Debug menu, click Start Debugging or press F5 to run the app in the emulator.
In the emulator, click the Start button.
The Start screen appears and the app is deactivated. The app will either go into a dormant state or be tombstoned, depending on the Tombstone upon deactivation while debugging check box setting.
To reactivate a dormant or tombstoned app
In the emulator, click the Back button.
If you navigated to other pages or opened another app, you may have to click the Back button more than once to reactivate the app. The debugging session resumes. If the debugger has detached from the app, you may need to press F5 to resume the session. For additional information about debugging and reactivation, see How to test app state changes for Windows Phone.
To restart an app
On the Start screen, swipe left to view the app list.
In the app list, click the app icon.
The app restarts without debugging.