14 DAY TRIAL // Concomitantly with the releasing to manufacturing of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008, Microsoft also hit RTM with the Windows SDK. On February 7, 2008, the Redmond company announced that the bits for Windows SDK went gold, and as such the Software Development kit had been made available for download. The Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 can be installed either as an ISO or Web Setup, and is designed to support Windows Server 2008, .NET Framework 3.5, and Windows Vista SP1. On top of this, Windows SDK is compatible with Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2005 SP1, including Visual Studio Express Editions.
Barry R. Butterklee, Release Product Manager Windows SDK, gave examples of what the Windows SDK brings to the table: "Support for Windows Server 2008 (x86, x64, and Itanium), .NET Framework 3.5, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista (including SP1), and Windows XP. Visual Studio 2008 C++ command line compiler toolset (with /analyze support) and matching CRT. The SDK headers, libs, and tools integrate with VS2008 when both the SDK and VS2008 are installed. New tools such as XPerf, SqlMetal, xsltc, gc, topoedit, aspnet_merge, and wsdcodegen. Documentation and samples (2200+ sample projects) to explain usage of new Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 features as well as previous platform features."
Via the Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 developers will be able to access not only documentation, but also samples, header files, libraries, and even tools set up to streamline the building of Windows applications. Essentially, Microsoft provides the resource in an effort to support both native Win32 and managed .NET Framework technologies. "This release was very much a team effort. Many SDK team members went above and beyond the stadard call of duty to ensure that this was a great release. Members of the Dev, Test and Program Management teams pulled together to ensure that we would release a great product," added Jason Sacks, Microsoft Program Manager.
Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 can be downloaded from here.