Microsoft has made it easier for developers to get familiar with Surface and to build Surface applications. At this weeks Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft announced the broad availability of the Microsoft Surface SDK Workstation Edition. Now anyone interested in developing collaborative, engaging massive multi-touch, multi-user experiences for Surface can easily access the software at no cost through surface.com.

The Surface hardware is needed to deploy an application, and many use the Surface Developer units to create and test their applications directly on the device. The SDK Workstation Edition lets you use a PC to develop and a PC based simulator to test applications using multiple mice and tag simulation tools. We launched resources for developers, designers and IT Professionals.

Supporting Surface Tools are also now on MSDN, TechNet, Download Center

To support the launch of the SDK on MSDN, we are transitioning away from our private Surface Community site and integrating into existing public Microsoft sites.

We have launched the following new pieces and we will be decommissioning the private Community site over the next few months:

• Surface Web site (www.surface.com)
  • New Technical Resources section so prospective and existing customers and partners can quickly connect to the resources they need to learn more about Surface or get support on issues.
• MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com)
  • New Microsoft Surface section of the MSDN Library (under .NET Development), providing the Surface SDK documentation and other topics about developing Surface applications.
  • New Surface-specific forums about designing and developing Surface applications.
• TechNet (http://technet.microsoft.com)
  • New Microsoft Surface section of the TechNet Library (under Products and Technologies), describing the basics of the Surface software and hardware and how to set up, customize, troubleshoot, and maintain Surface units.
  • New Surface-specific forums about the Surface software platform, hardware, and applications.
• Microsoft Download center (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads)
  • All Surface downloads, including the Surface SDK Workstation Edition, applications, documentation, and any software fixes.
• Microsoft Support (http://support.microsoft.com)
  • Public KB articles for fixes, known issues, and workarounds.
  • Surface Solution Center to direct customers to the right self-support and assisted-support options