Final versions of Windows Phone Developer Tools and XNA Game Studio 4.0 now available for download

As announced on the Windows Phone Developer Blog, the final release of the Windows Phone Developer Tools (WPDT) (which includes the final release of XNA Game Studio 4.0) is now available for download.

Getting started links – Windows Phone Developer Tools

Here are links to help you get started installing and using the Windows Phone Developer Tools:

Here are links for documentation and support related to the Windows Phone Developer Tools:

Getting started links – XNA Game Studio 4.0

Here are links to help you get started installing and using XNA Game Studio 4.0:

Note – deploying, running and debugging Xbox 360 games with XNA Game Studio 4.0 requires an updated version of XNA Game Studio Connect on the Xbox 360 console.  As noted on the XNA team blog, there will be a beta version of XNA Game Studio Connect that supports XNA Game Studio 4.0.  It was supposed to release today along with the final release of XNA Game Studio 4.0, but there have been some slight delays, and it will be released very soon.  Please keep an eye on the XNA team blog and the Creators Club site for an announcement when the XNA Game Studio Connect beta is available for download.

Here are links for documentation and support related to XNA Game Studio 4.0:

How to install Windows Phone Developer Tools

Here are steps you can use to install the Windows Phone Developer Tools:

  1. If you have either of the previous Windows Phone Developer Tools CTPs or the beta installed, you will need to uninstall them first.  You can do that by going to the Programs and Features control panel and choosing to remove the item named Microsoft Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP – ENU or Microsoft Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta – ENU.  This item will remove the other components that need to be removed.
  2. If you have the Visual Studio 2010 RC on your system, you will also need to uninstall that before you can install WPDT.
  3. (optional) If you plan to also use another VS 2010 edition (such as Professional, Ultimate, C# Express, etc) in addition to WPDT, you should install them before you install WPDT.  If you install them after WPDT, you will be prompted to download and install a Silverlight update when trying to use them.
  4. After removing previous WPDT CTPs and beta and the VS 2010 RC (if you had it installed still) and installing other VS 2010 editions (if you choose to), you can proceed with installing WPDT.

If you encounter setup failures

If you run into an installation or uninstallation failure for the Windows Phone Developer Tools, you can use the log collection tool to gather your setup log files.  This log collection tool will create a file named %temp%\vslogs.cab.

This tool does not gather XNA Game Studio 4.0 setup log files, so if your setup failure is caused by the XNA Game Studio 4.0 component, you’ll need to gather those logs separately by zipping up all of the logs in the folder named %temp%\XNA Game Studio 4.0 Setup\Logs.

Once you have gathered your setup log files, you can upload them to a file server of your choice (such as https://skydrive.live.com), and post a link to the log files in the forums to get additional support.

If you run into uninstallation issues with the WPDT CTP, CTP Refresh or Beta, you can use the information at https://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2010/07/12/10037442.aspx to remove XNA Game Studio or the Windows Phone Developer Tools.

<update date="10/11/2010"> Fixed link to the release notes that was still pointing to old beta information. </update>