14 DAY TRIAL // With the availability of the Release Candidate builds for Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4, Microsoft has also started to update the resources offered alongside the next iteration of its development platform and tools. Developers testing the RC development milestone of the two technologies can now access training content tailored to the release, available completely for free from Microsoft. The Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit - February Release is offered free of charge from the Microsoft Download Center, according to a Nicholas Allen, a program manager at Microsoft working on Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, Silverlight, and other projects for the .NET Framework.
“Following the Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4 release candidates last week, the Visual Studio training kit got a February update to cover the new content. Training kits are a collection of presentations, hands on labs, and demos related to the new features in a release. There are also videos although I believe these are done through links to online resources rather than being a part of the training kit download,” Allen stated. “The Visual Studio training kit covers Visual Studio Team System, the Visual Studio languages, .Net 4, and ASP.NET 4.”
Microsoft emphasized that the latest version of the Training Kit was designed to integrate seamlessly with Visual Studio 2010 RC and.NET Framework 4 RC. Developers will be able to access not only presentations, but also hands-on labs, and demonstrations involving the technologies. More specifically, the training kit focuses on: C# 4.0, Visual Basic 10, F#, Parallel Extensions, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow, Windows Presentation Foundation, ASP.NET 4, Windows 7, Entity Framework, ADO.NET Data Services, Managed Extensibility Framework and Visual Studio Team System.
In addition, Microsoft has also kicked up a notch the Visual Studio 2010 Walkthroughs for the RC development stage. “Also updated for the release candidate were the online walkthroughs that cover step-by-step descriptions of selected features, how to guides, and links to resources,” Allen added.
Visual Studio 2010 Premium Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Professional Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.
.NET Framework 4 Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.