Thoughts about setup and deployment issues, WiX, XNA, the .NET Framework and Visual Studio
All postings are provided AS IS with no warranties, and confer no rights. Additionally, views expressed herein are my own and not those of my employer, Microsoft.
As announced on the Windows Phone Developer Blog and on the App Hub web site, the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Release Candidate (RC) (formerly named the Windows Phone Developer Tools, and which includes the XNA Game Studio 4.0 Refresh RC as well) was released for download earlier this week.
The Windows Phone SDK 7.1 RC includes the following changes from the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Beta 2 release:
Getting Started links
Here are links to help you get started installing and using the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 RC:
Documentation links
Here are some links to useful documentation to help you get started with the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 RC:
Support links
Here are some links if you run into questions or issues with the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 RC:
How to install
Here are steps you can use to install the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 RC:
If you encounter Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Beta 2 setup failures
If you run into an installation or uninstallation failure for the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 RC, you can use the log collection tool to gather your setup log files. This log collection tool will create a file named %temp%\vslogs.cab.
Once you have gathered your setup log files, you can upload them to a file server of your choice (such as http://skydrive.live.com), and post a link to the log files in the forums to get additional support.
If you run into uninstallation issues with any release of the Windows Phone SDK or XNA Game Studio, you can use the cleanup tool described at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/pages/9544320.aspx to remove the Windows Phone SDK or XNA Game Studio.
Kudos to your team for this fab SDK. So much to do and so little time. I'm still waiting for the Mango release of the Win Phone OS; I see demos by peers all over our building and it is building the buzz up to a frantic level. :O)
THere seems to be a problem if your try to create and run a VB WP7 project if you're using the VS2010 VB Settings profile. It works OK if you create and run a VB WP7 project using the VS2010 C# settings profile.
The problem appears to be in the VS2010 VB settings profile. Here's what I did:
1.Restored my computer to the factory settings.
2. Installed VS2010 Ultimate as Admin.
3. Installed VS2010 SP1 as Admin.
4. Starrted up VS2010 as admin. Selected the C# developement settings. Pinned the icon to the Task Bar. Set it to run expanded as Admin.
4. Installed RC version of vm_web.exe.
5. Started VS2010.
6. Created a VB WP7 application and it ran without error in the emulator. Closed the emulator.
7. Saved the project.
8. Ran the application in the emulator without any errors. Closed the emulator.
9. Changed the Developement settings to VB.
10. Created a VB WP7 application.
11 ran it in the emulator. No error messages, but when I clicked on the back button, instead of going to the WP7 start screen, the application page just shrank to the center of the emulator. Licking on the back button two more times returned the application page to the full emulator screen. Clicking on the back button returned the emaultor to the WP7 Start screen. closed the emulator.
12 Save the project.
13. When I attempted to run it in the emulator the error message were displayed. Error message appears stating "The manifest file could not be updated. You may have to modify it manually. Could not find part of the path “C:\Users\Bob\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\ <Project name> \My Project\WMAppManifest.xml”
I went back to the C# developement setting and had no errors with VB applications. ALso the WP7 tools run MUCH faster using the C# setting vs the VB settings.