Windows 8 Release Preview, .NET Framework 4.5 RC and Visual Studio 2012 RC now available for download

As announced on the Building Windows 8 blog, Somasegar’s blog and Jason Zander’s blog, the Windows 8 Release Preview and an RC version of the .NET Framework 4.5 and Visual Studio 2012 are now available for download.  Here is some information to help you get started installing and using these preview releases.

Download links

Here are links to help you get started downloading these preview releases:

• Windows 8 Release Preview download page - https://windows.microsoft.com/release-preview 
• Visual Studio 2012 and .NET Framework 4.5 RC download page - https://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/11/en-us

Documentation links

Here are links to help you get started using the Windows 8 Release Preview:

• Getting started with Windows 8 application development - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/apps
• Getting started with Windows 8 for IT professionals - https://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/hh771457.aspx?ocid=wc-mscom-wol

Here are links to help you get started using the .NET Framework 4.5 and Visual Studio 2012 RC:

• What’s new in the .NET Framework 4.5 RC - https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ms171868(VS.110).aspx
• Application compatibility for the .NET Framework 4.5 RC - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh367887(v=VS.110).aspx 
• What’s new in the Visual Studio 2012 RC - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb386063(v=vs.110) 
• Go Live license terms for the .NET Framework 4.5 RC and Visual Studio 2012 RC - https://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/11/en-us/downloads/go-live

Notes about XNA Game Studio and Windows Phone development

If you plan to develop games and applications using XNA Game Studio and/or the Windows Phone SDK, there are a couple of important notes to keep in mind:

1. XNA Game Studio and the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 both work with Visual Studio 2010, not Visual Studio 2012.  You will not see any XNA Game Studio or Windows Phone project templates or other functionality for these products in the Visual Studio 2012 RC if you install both products on the same computer.  You can safely install Visual Studio 2012 and the Visual Studio 2012 RC side-by-side on the same computer though.
2. If you try to install XNA Game Studio or the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 on Windows 8, setup may fail.  If it does, you can use the workaround at https://blogs.msdn.com/b/astebner/archive/2012/02/29/10274694.aspx to solve the setup failure.

Comments

• Anonymous
  July 10, 2012
  So XNA is abandoned too? And what should we use now? Managed DirectX was killed, XNA is being killed, Silverlight is killed, WPF is being killed. I really won't be surprised if .Net Framework will be killed next.

• Anonymous
  July 10, 2012
  Hi Ark-kun - There is a compilation of information about XNA, specifically as it relates to Windows 8, in the blog post at elybob.wordpress.com/.../xna-in-windows-8.  I'd suggest taking a look at that for more details about what is and isn't supported.