As Windows 7 advances toward RTM, the operating system is accompanied by a range of resources focused on the next iteration of the Windows client. An illustrative example is the software development kit, designed to streamline the development of native (Win32) and managed (.NET Framework) applications. Proof that the Windows 7 SDK is evolving comes from the Redmond company's Visual C++ Team. A member noted that an issue related to Windows 7 SDK RC and Visual Studio 2010 had already been dealt with in the RTM version of the software development kit.

“If Win7 SDK (RC) is installed SidebySide with Visual Studio 2008 RTM before Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is installed, x64 and Itanium platform will not be available from the New Platform drop-down list. Build targeting x64 and Itanium will also fail. Note that the issue has been fixed in Win7 SDK RTM,” the Visual C++ team representative stated.

The problem was initially signaled on June 15th, by the Windows SDK team. At that time, Microsoft warned that installing Windows 7 SDK (RC) and Visual Studio 2008 RTM could disable VC++ configuration platform options. In this specific scenario, the Itanium and x64 listings will be missing from the New Platform drop-down lists of both the New Project Platform and New Solution Platform dialogs in Visual Studio IDE.

“This issue will occur regardless of the order of installation – Windows 7 SDK (RC) and then Visual Studio 2008 RTM, or Visual Studio 2008 RTM and then the Windows 7 SDK (RC) unless Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is installed before the installation of the SDK,” explained a member of the Windows SDK team. “The issue occurs because 64 bit versions of VCProjectAMD64Platform.dll and VCProjectIA64Platform.dll are installed instead of 32 bit versions. To prevent the issue install Visual Studio 2008 SP1 before installing the SDK.”

On June 15th, the issue was planned for fixing in the RTM build of the Windows SDK. As of July 1st, the Redmond company has already resolved it. Undoubtedly, just as Windows 7 is gearing up to be released to manufacturing by the end of this month, the SDK for the platform is also being wrapped up by Microsoft.

The software giant has not announced a delivery deadline for the Windows 7 SDK. However, it's not that hard to infer an availability date by looking at the track record of releases for the software development kit. The Beta version of the Windows 7 SDK was shipped on January 9th, 2009, concomitantly with the Beta Build 7100 of the operating system. Then the Release Candidate of the SDK was launched together with the RC development milestone of Windows 7 in May. I think it's pretty safe to assume that Windows 7 RTM and Windows 7 SDK RTM will be offered simultaneously in the second half of this month.

For the time being, there is a “workaround: If your Visual Studio installation has already been affected follow these steps to address this issue: Open the Control Panel. Select "Uninstall a program" from the Programs group. Uninstall "Microsoft Visual C++ Compilers 2008 Standard Edition - enu – x64." Uninstall "Microsoft Visual C++ Compilers 2008 Standard Edition - enu – x86." Right-click on the main Visual Studio entry in the program list and select "Uninstall/Change." When the Visual Studio setup dialog appears click the Next button and then click on the "Repair/Reinstall" option. Install Visual Studio 2008 SP1 if it is not already installed on the machine.”

Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1: RC and Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1: RC (ISO) are available for download here.