In my last post, I did a tour of the simulator function in Visual Studio 2012.

But I left two burning questions unanswered as a cliffhanger.

Now, here are the answers.

Why Is It Called a Simulator and Not an Emulator?

The answer to this question is simple: it’s not doing any emulation.

Unlike the Windows Phone emulator, the simulator is not emulating a device.

Under the hood, the simulator is actually connecting to itself via remote desktop. That’s right: what you’re seeing in the simulator is your very own PC.

Go ahead click the Windows button and you’ll see the start menu: you’ll see all your apps right where you left them.

If you look quickly enough, you’ll see it login to your PC with your own credentials. See below. 

This happens quickly. If you blink, you’ll miss it. (It was an experience getting a screenshot of this.)

The simulator can simulate touch input, different resolutions and even mock location sensor data.

Considering all of this, “simulator” is a very apt name.

Exiting the Simulator

Now that you’ve played around with your app, there’s only one thing left to do: exit the simulator.

You search around frantically and notice that there’s no close button.  How do you do it?

Simply right mouse click on the Simulator icon in the task bar and click Exit.