Hi,
I just set up a new development machine (Dell All-In-One Inspiron 2350) with VS2013/Blend5 - and if I try to use the XAML designer in either of these environments (for Windows 8.1 Store Apps) - it shows the outline of the page/ UIElement containers but doesn't render any of the elements at all so they are visible.
This is really odd as it works just fine on 3 other machines I have. I've tried creating brand new projects and same problems exist.
If I move my mouse over the design surface it will highlight the bounding boxes of elements (and allow me to select them) - as well as allowing selection of elements in the Document Outlines (and showing Properties panel correctly). I can compile/rebuild etc and no errors are showing at all (as far as Blend/VS2013 is concerned it seems to think everything is good).
Strangely enough though - both Blend + VS2013 xaml designers both work just fine if I open/create a Silverlight or WPF project (haven't tried WP) - however fails to work for Win8 XAML.
I can of course run XAML/Windows 8 apps with no problems - it's just the developer/design mode that's not working (and that pretty much prevents me doing any Win8 development on this machine - the primary purpose of it).
I've updated all the drivers for everything - can't see any issues there. It's uses Intel HD Integrated graphics - the only thing I can think of that may be causing issues - however have noted that on my Toshiba Kira notebook it works fine on external HDMI/monitor (and that's driven by same Intel HD Integrated graphics chip as the Dell Inspiron).
Is there anyone out there who has seen this issue / found some solution. I was going to try and ring DELL tomorrow when their support line opens - but fear it's unlikely I will get someone who even knows what VS2013 is - or that they will just point the finger at Microsoft or Intel.
note I'm happy to send in any crash dumps etc (not that anything is actually crashing) if that will help.
thanks
Niall
Niall Ginsbourg Windows Entertainment + Connected Home MVP (since 2007) mobilewares.net / Australia