Episode 8 of Visual Studio Toolbox (LightSwitch Starter Kits) is now live

This week we look at LightSwitch, which launched on July 26 and is now available for purchase. Of course, if you are an MSDN Subscriber you get it as part of your subscription. LightSwitch is the fastest way to build database applications for the desktop and the cloud. In this episode, you will see how to make developing with LightSwitch even faster with the LightSwitch Starter Kits. These Starter Kits cover common business needs like expense reporting and issue tracking. All you need to do is download and install one of the kits and then create a new LightSwitch project based on it. LightSwitch creates data tables and screens and writes some basic code for you. You can press F5 and run or customize the application to meet your needs. And because you built it with LightSwitch, the application is well architected and scalable.

My previous post talked about episode 6 of the show and now episode 8 is live. What happened to episode 7? I could make up a story about how this is the missing episode or how it was held up due to contractual issues, but the reality is that I was on vacation in Montana the week it went live, so I didn't get a chance to post about it. Episode 7 featured the Power Commands for Visual Studio 2010. This extension adds a number of commands to Visual Studio to help you work with projects, files, references, and code.

Interestingly, although these episodes were taped several weeks apart, I am wearing the same shirt. I tape next week's episode tomorrow, so my burgundy t-shirt wearing streak will just have to end at 2 episodes. :)