The Mailowl Scrolls

It’s one of those things where you don’t want to read other people’s experiences and try things for yourself.

The reason my BlackJack demo has come to a grind halt is because I was running on a Trial Version of Visual Studio 2005 and it expired. Because I’m off site and far from work, it’s been impossible for me to get a Professional Visual Studio copy, so the other night I loaded up VPC with a clean Windows XP install and set about installing WinFX on Visual Studio Express.

Well, the Runtime Components and Windows SDK didn’t complain but I did get a warning when installing the “Orcas” Development Tools for WinFX CTP that the WPF Designer (which I’ve come to know as “Cider”) was not supported on Express but should be available in later version. I opened up Visual Studio C# Express and started a new WPF Windows project and sure enough, they gave me the XML editor but not the graphical designer. I could still make a form though, build and successfully run it so “No harm, no foul” the SDK comes with XAMLPad so you can at least see your form while you work on it (Plus there’s the Interactive Designer to play with as well).

While WPF met me half way, when I installed the Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation Beta 2.2 it flat out refused to play ball. The warning I got was along the lines of “Required components are not installed” (I’m writing this post mortem) and I couldn’t even check the tickbox for the Visual Studio components. After installing everything else and opening Visual Studio Express, no projects were available for Windows Workflow and no you’re not going to do anything in WWF with Express.

I haven’t tried any WCF because I haven’t the faintest clue where to even begin. I’m attending SA Architect’s workshop on WCF this weekend and I’ll come back to you on WCF in Express, but my feeling is that you’ll be able to play happily.

You’ve been warned! My suggestion is to get yourself a copy of Visual Studio 2005 Professional and forget trying to use WinFX in Express.