Windows Azure SDK 1.6 is out today and you can install it directly from Web (Web Platform Installer 3.0 Required)

Download link:

• http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/sdk/

 Note:

• Windows Azure SDK 1.6 web platform deployment is based in WebPI 3.0 so if you have WebPI 4.0 installed, please uninstall it and then try installing Windows Azure SDK 1.6 and it will install like charm.

Latest Windows Azure SDK 1.6 includes the following new features: 

• Windows Azure Libraries for .NET
  • Improved Service Bus and Caching capabilities and performance.
  • New service management APIs for storage.
• URL Rewrite 2.0
• Windows Azure Emulator – November 2011
  • Performance Improvements to compute & storage emulators.
• Windows Azure Authoring Tools – November 2011
• Windows Azure SDK 1.6 Build 1.6.41103.1601
• Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio 2010 SP1 – November 2011
  • Streamlined publishing: Easily connect your environment to Windows Azure by downloading a publish settings file for your account. You can then configure all aspects of deployments, such as Remote Desktop (RDP), without ever leaving Visual Studio. By default, publish will make use of in-place deployment upgrades for significantly faster application updates.
  • Multiple profiles: Your publish settings, build config, and cloud config choices will be stored in one or more publish profile MSBuild files. This makes it easy for you and your team to quickly change all your environment settings. 
  • Team Build: The Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio 2010 now offer MSBuild command-line support to package your application and pass in properties.  Additionally they can be installed on a lighter-weight build machine without the requirement of Visual Studio being installed.
  • Visual Studio now allows you to make improved in-place updates to deployed services in Windows Azure.
    • http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2011/10/19/announcing-improved-in-place-updates.aspx
  • Improved robustness of Remote Desktop Connectivity to Windows Azure VMs.
• Windows Azure SDK for .NET – November 2011
• ASP.NET MVC3 Tools Update Installer