Getting Started with Visual Studio LightSwitch

UPDATE 12/15/2011 –
This blog post is based on Beta 2. Now that Visual Studio LightSwitch has released please head on over to this Getting Started series of tutorials: Beginning LightSwitch: Getting Started --------------------------------

Now that we’ve had Beta 2 released for over a month we’re seeing a LOT more people asking questions in our forums and visiting our developer center which is awesome! Sometimes people don’t know where to start, especially as more and more people start posting more advanced LightSwitch content out there on the web. So here’s where you start:

LightSwitch Developer Center - https://msdn.com/lightswitch

There on the home page you will see clear steps to get started.

Download Visual Studio LightSwitch Beta 2

Watch the instructional LightSwitch "How Do I?" videos

Get essential training

Ask questions in the LightSwitch forums

If you click on “Get essential training” then you will be taken to the Learn page which is broken down into the sections, Getting Started, Essential Topics, Advanced Topics. The getting started section is what you want to start with (I guess we named the section appropriately )

Getting Started

Are you completely new to Visual Studio LightSwitch? This information will help you get started using LightSwitch to develop business applications for the desktop or the cloud. Be sure to check out the step-by-step “How Do I”videos.

Create Your First LightSwitch Application

 Watch the LightSwitch How Do I Videos

Download the Visual Studio LightSwitch Training Kit

I’ll also recommend watching the following video of my session from Dev Days a couple weeks ago to give you an idea of what LightSwitch can do and how to quickly build a business application:

  Video Presentation: Introduction to Visual Studio LightSwitch

When you’ve worked yourself through the getting started section, move into the Essential Topic areas to drill in more. We add content here often so if you’re learning LightSwitch, you’ll want to bookmark this page.

Have fun and Enjoy!