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Vista Beta 2, WinFX Beta 2, Office 2007 Beta 2 (updated 9 June)

  • Artigo

If you've been waiting (with beta'd breath) for the ideal moment to start exploring the upcoming Microsoft developer technologies, that moment has arrived.  Yesterday saw the release of three different Beta 2s:

 WinFX Beta 2, Vista Beta 2, and Office 2007 Beta 2.   Here's what you need to know to get started.  (Updated June 9 with new links.)

 

WinFX site on MSDN WinFX Beta 2

WinFX Beta 2, which includes the Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon"), Windows Communication Foundation ("Indigo"), Windows Workflow Foundation and InfoCard, is now available for public download.  These represent four of Microsoft's most strategic developer technologies. 

There is a new WinFX site on MSDN with all the information you need to download, learn about those technologies, and get connected to the community.  If you're a developer, visit https://msdn.microsoft.com/winfx/

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Over the coming weeks, you'll see a wealth of training resources that will target WinFX Beta 2.  Therefore, if you plan to work with WinFX (and learn WinFX) between now and launch, and even create an application that is ready to launch with Vista, this is the Beta to work with.  If you want to hear about training resources as they arrive, you should sign up to the Beta Experience program at this link: https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/default.aspx  

 

 

Vista site on MSDN Windows Vista Beta 2

The latest public build of Microsoft's new client OS is now available to MSDN and Technet subscribers - and (UPDATED) now available for public download through this link .  New information on Vista Beta 2 is at this link: https://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

and developer information is available here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

 

 

My first impressions: I'm writing this blog entry from the Beta 2 build.  Compared to previous builds (which many of you have seen me demo with) this build seems significantly more stable.  If you are currently using the February Community Tech Preview, this is night-and-day different.  Vista's overall speed could still use a boost, though.  I'm sure that's a focus of the coming months.

 

Vista Beta 2 has the added advantage of shipping with a build of WinFX which is aligned with WinFX Beta 2.  This means that applications built using WinFX Beta 2 will work on Vista Beta 2, as well as downlevel on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 running WinFX Beta 2.  I will be honest - the development experience using Visual Studio 2005 is significantly smoother and faster on XP and 2003. 

Therefore, working with the Beta 2 builds of Vista and WinFX represents a significant advantage: you can build WinFX Beta 2 applications on XP or 2003, and test them on XP, 2003 and Vista Beta 2.

 

 

Ofice site on MSDN Office 2007 Beta 2, and VSTO June CTP

Office 2007 has reached Beta 2 as well.  Visit the Office site at this link to find out more about Office 2007: https://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx, and here's a link to sign up to the Beta 2 program and download Office 2007 Beta 2: https://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/getthebeta.mspx

Visual Studio Tools for the Office System (VSTO) allows you to develop extensions to Office in any .NET language.  They represent an excellent opportunity to leverage the complete power of the .NET Framework and languages, and build applications that fit into an Office-based workflow.  VSTO version 3 allows you to extend Office 2007, by doing things like customizing the new "ribbon" interface to Office 2007.

VSTO v3 has just had a June CTP released as well.  For more information, videos, tutorials, and to download, please see the Office Developer Center here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/future/default.aspx

 

 

What you need to do right now

Here are quick links to the things you can do to start exploring these technologies:

Vista: Public download link is here.

Vista & WinFX: Read about and find download links for the latest Vista and WinFX technologies here.

Vista & WinFX & Office 2007: Sign up to the Beta Experience program here.

Office 2007:  Download Office 2007 Beta 2 here andstart your Office 2007 developer exploration here.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 29, 2006
    Here are some quick links for today:
    Mini-Microsoft quits! (but not fully)
    Custom MSBuild task for...

  • Anonymous
    May 29, 2006
    Oh baby, there goes my evening. 
    Daniel Lehenbauer has updated his community-driven 3D Toolkit...

  • Anonymous
    June 06, 2006
    ITAG Presents : Raising the Stakes with "Avalon," the Windows Presentation Foundation
    When: Monday,...

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2006
     "You can think of WinFX like .NET 3.0," I often said, while explaining how these new technologies...

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 13, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 14, 2006
    Hi barkest - with the Express Edition you are unable to add in the Visual Designer for XAML (which was formerly codenamed Cider).  

    You still should be able to build and work with WPF, using a tool like Expression Interactive Designer May CTP (which I'd recommend), or even a simple tool like XamlPad (which is found in the SDK), in order to work with XAML.  To get started, make sure you've installed everything under "Downloads for Developing Applications" on this page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/downloads/products/getthebeta/

    (The fifth download, for Workflow, is optional for you if you just want to build WPF apps)

    Hope that helps,
    Rob

  • Anonymous
    June 14, 2006
    thank you rob.

    i have eid may ctp but its more or less a notepad for c# (no tools to help a new guy like me).

    after posting and reading more stuff i purchased VS2005. When it arrives i will get the latest patches/updates and any extensions i need for building .net 3.0 apps (i hope i got the right?)

    so based on what you have said if i have VS 2005 (stanard ed) i can add visual designer for xaml (as an extension?)

    thank you very much for the answer and although new i am going with c# rather than vb (yes i read your article)

    thanks again :-)

  • Anonymous
    June 15, 2006
    Hi Barkest - Correct, you can add the visual designer for XAML as an extension to the Standard Edition of VS2005.

    If you only had the Visual Studio Express Edition, you could still get Autocomplete in the C# code sections of your WPF application within Visual Studio Express.  For creating XAML, I tend to use Expression to help me learn the syntax.  (And web searches, of course) :) As you probably know, both Visual Studio and Expression Interactive Designer use the same Project File format.

    Let me know how you get on!

  • Anonymous
    June 15, 2006
    the third way is to create the c# code in vs (express or standard) to take advantage of the tools then cut and past into expression interactive - should work? not tried it yet but that would cut out the need for any extension and i guess that c# code in vs is fully compatible with expression (.net 3.0) as the code has not changed just the compiler (i am new so guessing again).

    also i found the xaml editor in interactive not so great so i downloaded aurora beta (mobiform) and i cut and paste the xaml into its editor as its much slicker (it creates an element tree so you can easily find elements and children - it also has a search).

    thanks for the help - much appreciated (1 week into c#, xaml and the expression family).