In preparation for our upcoming .NET 3.5 Roadshow  (http://www.dotnetroadshow.com/) I am posting setup instructions for those who need some tips on setting up an environment to work with the latest technologies. If you can start using Visual Studio 2008 (Beta 2 available now), I highly recommend it - it gives you the latest .NET 3.0 tools for your WCF, WPF and WF projects. But, for those still using Visual Studio 2005, I have provided those links here as well.

• Windows XP/SP2 or Windows Server 2003
  • Enable IIS
  • Enable MSMQ
  • Install .NET 3.0
    • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en
• Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008
  • Enable IIS/WAS
  • Enable MSMQ
  • NOTE: .NET 3.0 is already installed
• Windows SDK for .NET Framework 3.0
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C2B1E300-F358-4523-B479-F53D234CDCCF&displaylang=en
• SQL Server 2000/2005 or SQL Express
• SQL Server 2005 SP2 (if applicable)
• If you use Visual Studio 2005, install these add-ons:
  • Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for WCF and WPF – Nov 2006
    • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F54F5537-CC86-4BF5-AE44-F5A1E805680D&displaylang=en
  • Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for WF – Nov 2006
    • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5D61409E-1FA3-48CF-8023-E8F38E709BA6&displaylang=en
  • Visual Studio 2005 LINQ CTP – May 2006
    • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1e902c21-340c-4d13-9f04-70eb5e3dceea&displaylang=en
  • Visual Studio 2005 ADO.NET vNext CTP – May 2006
    • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B68F6F53-EC87-4122-B1C8-EE24A043BF72&displaylang=en
  • Visual Studio 2005 Entity Data Model Designer Prototype CTP – May 2006
    • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=74bda7b2-9ca9-4eea-a33f-31942ddc9dbe&displaylang=en
    • NOTE: this doesn’t work so well, better to install VS 2008 Beta 2 extension for this
• If you use Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 (preferred), install these add-ons:
  • .NET 3.0 tools are built-in to VS 2008
  • LINQ and related tools are built-in to VS 2008
  • At the time of this writing the Entity Data Model and related tools were not available for Beta 2.