Free Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools Released to Web
The final release of the Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools was released to web (RTW) today. You can download the tools here.
The Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools package includes everything you need to write awesome applications and games for Windows Phone 7. All of the tools included in it are absolutely free.
The following is installed with the download:
- Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone – Free edition of VS 2010 for Phone development.
- Express Blend 4 for Windows Phone – Free version of Blend for Windows Phone 7 Development.
- Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 – Rich framework for building great applications for Windows Phone 7.
- XNA Game Studio for Windows Phone 7 –Rich framework that enables you to build great 2D and 3D games for Windows Phone 7.
- Windows Phone Emulator – A hardware accelerated emulator that allows you to run and debug your applications and games without requiring a phone.
- Phone Registration Tool – When you get a device, this allows you to “unlock” the device so you can run/debug your application on it, using your Marketplace account.
Recommending doing the direct install from here.
NOTE: You’ll need to uninstall the beta version before installing the RTW version.
See Scott Guthrie’s blog post on the release at Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools Released. He walks you through how to set up and use he tools. For more details about the release, see the Windows Phone Developer Blog posting Windows Phone Developer Tools Are Final.
Silverlight Toolkit Adds Controls, Libraries
The Silverlight toolkit has more controls and libraries to help you in your Windows Phone 7 development. The initial set includes the following:
- ContextMenu control
- DatePicker and TimePicker controls
- ToggleSwitch control
- GestureHelper library
- WrapPanel control
To learn more about the new control, see Tim Heuer’s post Silverlight Toolkit for Windows Phone 7. Get the toolkit from Silverlight toolkit on Codeplex.
Demos of Windows Phone 7 Applications
Some videos are posted that show applications running on actual Windows Phone 7 hardware devices connected to the web over 3G:
On YouTube, you can search the tag wp7dev to find other demos that have been posted by developers who have been using the previous previews – the demos posted include games, utility applications, data snacking applications, and more
Getting Started
To help get you started:
- MSDEV offers Windows Phone 7 in 7 – This is a series for developers who want to pick up the basics quickly with brief explanations and hands-on examples.
- Building a Twitter client for Windows Phone 7 – An introductory tutorial Scott Guthrie wrote a few months ago
- Jump Start Training – 12 free Windows Phone 7 JumpStart Training Videos on Channel9
- Windows Phone Development documentation on MSDN – Windows Phone 7 documentation home
- Programming Guide for Windows Phone 7 – Windows Phone 7 Specific Topics
- Windows Phone 7 Forum – Windows Phone 7 Help Forum
- Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 Forum – Help Forum on using Silverlight for Windows Phone 7
- Optimizing Silverlight Applications for Windows Phone 7 – Great whitepaper written by the Silverlight team, with examples, detailing how to make your application perform fast and smooth.
- Windows Phone 7 UI Guidelines and Templates – Good whitepaper and UI resources
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Bruce D. KyleISV Architect Evangelist | Microsoft Corporation