Getting Started

Getting Started with Windows Phone Development

Explore all links from the MSDN Library root page.Popular topics:

• Windows Phone Development Homepage
• Application Platform Overview for Windows Phone
• Fundamental Concepts for Windows Phone
• Getting Started Guide for Developing for Windows Phone
• The Silverlight and XNA Frameworks for Windows Phone
• Application Features for Windows Phone
• Class Library Reference for Windows Phone
• Windows Phone How-To Index
• Code Samples for Windows Phone

Windows Phone Developer Tools January 2011 Update

Windows Phone Developer Tools consist of Visual Studio IDE that includes a toolbox containing phone controls, a phone-based designer skin, and project templates specific for phone application development. It also includes the Windows Phone Emulator that you can use to deploy, debug, and test your applications..

Visual Basic for Windows Phone Developer Tools - RTW

This release enables Visual Basic developers to create Silverlight applications for Windows Phone 7 using the final version of the Windows Phone Developer Tools.

Windows Phone 7 Development for Absolute Beginners videos

This video series will help aspiring Windows Phone 7 developers get started. We'll start off with the basics and work our way up so in a few hours, you will know enough to build simple WP7 applications, such as a GPS aware note taking application. We'll walk you through getting the tools, knowing what an if statement is, to using the GPS built into the phone and much more!

Porting your IPhone and Android app or game to Windows Phone 7 tutorials

Thinking about porting your application to the Windows Phone 7 platform? These links will help you get started.

Jesse Liberty's "Windows Phone From Scratch" Tutorials

Jesse Liberty is a senior community program manager in Microsoft Developer Guidance, focused on Windows Phone 7.Following are links to many "Windows Phone From Scratch" mini-tutorials that Liberty created for his blog. The series assumes that developers want to learn to program for the Windows Phone, but have no experience with Silverlight, C#, or .NET.

Building a Windows Phone 7 Application from Start to Finish

This documentation and accompanying sample application will get you started building a complete application for Windows Phone 7. You will learn about common developer issues in the context of a simple fuel-tracking application for your car named Fuel Tracker. This topic describes things you should know before you start creating your Windows Phone application.

Windows Phone Developer Resources

This is your one-stop shop for information about developing apps and games for Windows Phone. The links on this page represent the best available info for Windows Phone developers from Microsoft and a variety of other sources, including top bloggers.

Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 Beta (Mango)

The Windows Phone Developer Tools includes the following:

• Microsoft Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 (Beta)
• Windows Phone Emulator (Beta)
• Silverlight 4 SDK and DRT
• Microsoft XNA Game Studio 4.0 Referesh Windows Phone Extensions
• Microsoft Expression Blend SDK Preview for Windows Phone 7.1
• WCF Data Services Client for Window Phone 7.1

What's New in Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1(Mango)

This topic contains information about what’s new in Windows Phone Developer Tools 7.1 Beta and the documentation.

Building a Windows Phone 7 Application from Start to Finish

This topic describes things you should know before you start creating your Windows Phone application. Some of the tasks that you will learn include the following:

• Defining your application from an idea
• Creating a new Windows Phone project
• Creating pages
• Navigating between pages
• Laying out a page
• Using controls to create the UI
• Adding images and icons
• Creating a consistent look
• Displaying data
• Creating data classes
• Saving and loading data
• Restoring your application after deactivation
• Validating data entry input
• Incorporating photos on Windows Phone
• Publishing your application in the Windows Phone Marketplace

Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Beta2

The new Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Beta2 (renamed from WPDT) can be used to develop Applications for both 7.0 and 7.1 version of Windows Phone OS releases.

Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Release Candidate

The Windows Phone Software Development Kit (SDK) 7.1 provides you with all of the tools that you need to develop applications and games for both Windows Phone 7.0 and Windows Phone 7.5 devices. This download is the Release Candidate (RC) and provides a ‘Go Live’ license that enables you to develop and publish applications to the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Build Scalable Mobile Applications for iOS, Android and Windows Phone

The process of building mobile applications using Windows Azure is now easier than ever with the Windows Azure Toolkits for Devices. With support for Windows Phone, iOS, and Android, the Windows Azure Toolkit for Devices lets you easily build mobile applications that use Windows Azure cloud services.