I consulted some MSDN pages to help learn how to write Windows 8 apps using C++. You need Visual Studio Express for Windows 8. This is also known as Visual Studio 11. It has Blend in it. This product is licensed to you. Be reminded that you cannot perform file input/output operations directly in your apps.
Windows Store apps are not managed. The user interface is defined using XAML. You will notice some files with a *.g extension on them. They are generated files and will get overwritten. Do not edit them.
There is a manifest file for your app that specifies the app capabilities. This file is an XML file. You can edit it with an XML Editor. Normally you use the Application Manifest Design part of Visual Studio. The user has to grant the resources that you request via the manifest. This is a security feature.
