WinFX December CTP is available for download

I was getting my laptop ready to take with me for the holidays (because my parents have a 56K modem that is not ideal for working on projects in an online setting), and one of the things I decided to install is the latest WinFX runtime and SDK so I can take a look at the development tools that are included with the WinFX platform and Vista. I found that there is a new December 2005 CTP that just went live today. You can get full details on the WinFX beta page.

You will need to uninstall any previous WinFX beta versions that you might have previously installed (but there is an uninstall tool to automate this if you choose). The good news is that this December 2005 CTP is compatible with the released version of the .NET Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005, so if you already have the released version of those products you can leave them on your system. The better news is that unlike the November CTP, the December CTP can be installed and used on Windows Vista. However, it requires the December CTP of Windows Vista as well, and installation will likely fail if you try to install WinFX on any of the previous CTP builds of Vista.

Here is a cheat sheet for what pieces of WinFX you should choose to install and what order you should install them for various WinFX scenarios:

1. Execution of WinFX applications only

2. SDK-style WinFX development

3. IDE-style WinFX development