The all-in-one installer
Here’s a story you know very well. Microsoft creates a new version of a popular framework. Throughout the beta cycle they release versions of the tools and SDKs. Finally the day comes when they release the final version and we start installing the bits on our computers. The best solution for us of course is to have a single installer that gets our computer setup for the new technology. Sadly, this single installer goal is not always forthcoming. Instead you have to go from site to site downloading various installers, then follow the guidance docs to determine the correct install order and hope that everything works when you are done.
There are times when Microsoft gets the install story correct though. My question this week was; how did they do with the Windows Phone 7 release?
Here’s a summary of how they did with the one file installer goal based on my experience this week.
Getting the installer
First you have to get the installer. I found a link on the developer.windowsphone.com site. It’s also available on the Expression Blend site. http://www.microsoft.com/expression/windowsphone/Default.aspx
Clicking the ‘Get the Free Tools’ link takes you to another page on the windowsphone site.
Clicking the ‘Download the Developer Tools’ link starts the download.
Once I got the files on the local drive the install took about 30 minutes on my laptop.
What’s installed in the Developers Tools?
Here is a screenshot of the Programs and Features window after the install.
And here’s a breakdown of the installed items.
- Emulator
- Phone Emulator x64
- Expression Blend
- Blend 4 updates
- Blend SDK for WP7
- Blend add-in for Adobe FXG Import
- XNA Game Studio
- XNA Game Studio 4.0
- XNA Platform Tools
- XNA Framework Redistributable
- XNA Phone Extensions
- Visual Studio 2010
- WCR RIA services V1.0
- Silverlight Tools
- Windows Phone Add-in
- F#
- F# Runtime for Silverlight 4
- Silverlight
- Silverlight 4 SDK
- Resources
- Phone Developer Resources
Additional resources
Even though the installer is very complete there are some additional resources you should consider downloading.
Microsoft Advertising SDK for Windows Phone 7
