Making the most of next weeks SharePoint 2010 developer training

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[you can still register if you are free on the afternoons of 9th to 11th – UK time]

We have 50+ registrations with more coming in – which is fantastic. Please read on to make the most of the training.

Background

We have structured the training to make sure that you can still learn lots during the three days even if you do not have SharePoint 2010 installed. Additionally the course is based around a subset of the channel 9 training to allow you to easily dig deeper or look again at specific areas. Which means if you have zero time between now and next Wednesday then you are still good to go. But if you can do some pre-work you will likely get even more out of the three days.

Step 1: Check out the topics and resources available on-demand

The course is based around a subset of the channel 9 training to allow you to easily dig deeper or look again at specific areas.

Step 2: Use a pre-configured Virtual Machine which you can download (best start today – it is large!)

Consider using the VM we created If you don't have access to SharePoint 2010. You will need a 64bit host OS and bare minimum of 4GB of RAM. 8GB recommended. Virtual PC can not be used with this VM – Virtual PC only supports 32bit guests.

The 2010-7a Information Worker VM gives you everything you need to develop for SharePoint 2010.

Remember you only need to download the “parts” for the 2010-7a VM.

There are 3 subtly different ways of using this VM:

  • Easiest is to follow the advice of the video and get yourself a host OS of Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V and simply use the VM
  • Alternatively you can take the VHD and create a “Boot to VHD” if you have Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise Edition. This works really well – especially if you are already familiar with “Boot to VHD” (This post I did will help you get started)
  • Or you can take the VHD and use an alternative VM tool such as VirtualBox if you have a different host OS.
    • NB: This tends to involve some work to get everything running fine. Check out parts 1 to 3 from Rolly and if you go with Virtual Box use an IDE controller not SATA. SATA will blue screen. Note in the screenshot below I also converted the vhd to a vmdk. I used the FREE Starwind Converter to do this whilst I was fighting blue screens – not sure its necessary as VirtualBox does now work with VHDs.

image

or Step 3 – Install SharePoint 2010 on a 64bit Windows 7 or Vista Host

I haven’t tried this but it is now supported. Check out MSDN.

Final notes:

  • I am in the process of securing a number of hosted VMs for ISVs directly managed by my team. Your Architect Evangelist will have details once I have them! Else we can sort out on the Wed.
  • Regrettably I am unable to give folks 1:1 support on any issues around Boot to VHD, 3rd party VM products etc.

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