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Readying myself for Windows Phone 7 "Hello, Operator?"

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In wondering where to start talking about Windows Phone 7 (#wp7) development I thought maybe it’d be best if I started right at the very beginning. A very logical place to start. Whether I can go on till I get to the end ala The King’s advice in Alice in Wonderland remains to be seen. I’ve just paved a machine and want to get it set up for Windows Phone development using the emulator. Here’s what I’m doing:

Note: This is the process as of 21st June with the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP – April Refresh. As versions are closely tied together, this will inevitably change as soon as a new build of the Windows Phone developer tools is released. Given the current build is now almost two months old, this could be quite soon. You have been warned J

  1. [Optional] Install Expression Blend 4 Release Candidate (*not* Expression Blend 4 RTM)
    1. Expression Blend 4 gives you a high quality visual designer for WP7 – I’d recommend installing it
  2. [Optional] Install Visual Studio 2010
    1. Optional insofar as: if you don’t have VS2010 installed, when you install the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP (step 4), VS2010 Express For Phone CTP will be installed for you.
  3. If you have Silverlight 4 version 4.0.50524.0 installed (right-click on any Silverlight app – eg https://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/ to check) you’ll need to uninstall it for the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP to install.
  4. Install the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP – April Refresh
    1. This installs
      1. Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone CTP (if VS2010 not already installed)
      2. Windows Phone Emulator CTP
      3. Silverlight for Windows Phone CTP
      4. XNA Game Studio 4.0 CTP
  5. Install the Microsoft Expression Blend Add-in Preview 2 for Windows Phone
  6. Install the Microsoft Expression Blend Software Development Kit (SDK) Preview 2 for Windows Phone

That’s it! Okay it’s a little more involved than is perhaps ideal but we’ll simplify it as we get nearer to release.

A good candidate for “Boot from VHD”

As I mentioned above, it’s quite possible that another release of the Windows Phone Developer Tools will come along quite soon and necessitate some uninstalling / re-installing. Given that using a virtual machine isn’t possible with the emulator (the emulator is a virtual machine and you can’t run a VM inside a VM – the world turns inside our or something) I considered using the boot from VHD functionality in Windows 7 to make this easier.

Create a base VHD with OS, all the apps you need and anything that’s unlikely to change (eg VS2010 in my case). Then create a differencing disk and set this as the boot disk. At this stage you can install all the above and, when it comes time to change, just create a new differencing disk parented on the original base disk and install the new stuff. Neat and simple.

Posted via email from mikeormond's posterous