Microsoft has released a first developer preview build of .Net Native, a platform formerly known by its codename "Project N." According to Microsoft, Windows Store apps start up to 60% faster with .NET Native and have a much smaller memory footprint.

The first release is a Developer Preview that allows the development and testing of apps with this new compiler. In short, NET Native compiles C# to native machine code that performs like C++.

The developer preview currently enables building apps for Windows Store on ARM and x64 architectures, with support for x86 to coming soon. The preview supports Windows Store applications but Micrsoft will continue to evolve and improve native compilation for the range of .NET applications.

.NET Native offers the edit/compile/debug environment with productivity enhancers like Edit and Continue and code refactoring. Developers continue to upload MSIL app packages to the Windows Store. The compiler in the cloud compiles the app using .NET Native in the Store, creating a self-contained app package that's customized to the device where the app will be installed.