Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools Released

Microsoft Windows Phone team has finally released the Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools. It will enable developers to create engaging consumer experiences running on a Windows® Phone. Tools are built upon existing Microsoft® tools and technologies such as Visual Studio, Expression Blend®, Silverlight®, and the XNA Framework. And as Developers are already familiar with those technologies and their related tools, they will be able to create new applications for Windows Phone without a steep learning curve.



The Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools package includes:

• 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.

All of the above tools and frameworks are packaged into one setup, and everything is free.  If you already have Visual Studio 2010, the setup will also add support for Windows Phone 7 development and projects to your full Visual Studio 2010.

Below is a screen-shot of the above application running inside the built-in emulator and being debugged by Visual Studio:

If you want to see some awesome applications built for the Windows Phone 7, you can search the tag wp7dev on youtube to find demos that have been posted by developers.

Below are some videos taken of a few applications running on actual Windows Phone 7 hardware devices connected to the web over 3G:

• Netflix
• Twitter
• Flixster
• Open Table
• Travelocity

How to Start Building Windows Phone 7 Apps Now

The core necessary skills required to start writing a Windows Phone 7 application or game are .NET, Silverlight or XNA.

Below are some Windows Phone 7 specific links to help get you started:

• Building a Twitter client for Windows Phone 7 – An introductory tutorial I 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

You can learn more about today’s release from the Windows Phone 7 Blog


Note:If you have installed previous preview releases of the tools, you will need to completely uninstall those before installing today’s final release. This is also true for the Zune Client if you’ve installed that as well (which is used to sync applications with real devices).



The download of the final Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools release is here



Thanks to ScottGu