Getting Started with the Windows 7 Core (Host) Development Environments

Setup your network connections and local administrator account. Also, get your Windows 7 machine added to your Companies domain with administrator rights to your local machine. With domain logins, you may need to be connected to your Companies network to get updates. Some of the installs covered in this blog are easier to do from the account you will be using, so if you need to do installs remotely, use VPN to get updates through your Companies network or temporarily remove yourself from the domain, but still use your domain account to login to your machine.

Install ISO Recorder, at least v3.1 for Windows 7 compatibility. With this utility, you can simply right-click on a physical CD, DVD or Blue Ray device and select “Create and image from CD/DVD” to create an iso file. Either open or click on a physical CD, DVD or Blue Ray device to burn your iso file to the media.

Install Elaborate Bytes Virtual Clone Drive, at least version 5.4.4 for good Windows 7 and Windows XP interoperability. Simply right-click on an ISO file and select “Mount” Virtual CD or DVD or “Unmount” it.

Tip: Install these utilities in order listed to have the mouse options work as described. I’ve had trouble with versions of Virtual Clone Drive in the past, but so far this version looks good. In the event you need to remove it, kill the process before uninstalling it.

Actually, I would have expected to see these features in Windows by now, but the new Windows Virtual PC lets you mount iso files as a Virtual CD/DVD, making them available to the virtual machines.

Under Control Panel, use the Programs and Features “Turn Windows features on or off” link to review the installed windows components. Enable Internet Information Services for development and testing purposes, along with any other needed windows components that are necessary for the main Windows 7 host development environment.

 

Under Control Panel, use the Programs and Features to uninstall any unnecessary or trial versions of software that came with your Windows 7 machine.

Now would be a good time to round up the latest version of all your favorate tools and utilities. You should have no trouble finding one version that works under Windows 7, Vista and Windows XP, so you can install them in your Windows 7 Host (Core) Development Environment and/or under your Virtual Guest Operating Systems. Here are some that I use regularly:

	Paint.Net v3.5.5 is highly recommended for web and client application development purposes. It supports layers, special effects and power tools, available in premium vector and raster graphics applications, but best of all its free, while boasting an active and growing online community, help, tutorials, and plugins.
	Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar (IE DevBar) is a plugin for IE 6 and above for design and debugging of web pages, with a ruler, page layout preview in various resolutions, HTML validation, CSS validation, DOM viewer, DOM drilldown, elements and properties viewer, style trace of declarations, toggle able pane, menu hierarchy, toolbar features. These Developer Tools are already bundled in IE 8 and above, but need to be enabled.
	Fiddler2 is a Web Debugging Proxy logs all HTTP(S) traffic between your computer and the Internet, allowing you to inspect all HTTP(S) traffic, set breakpoints, and “fiddle” with incoming or outgoing data. Fiddler includes a powerful event-based scripting subsystem, which is a syntax-aware script editing environment, and can be extended using any .NET language. Fiddler is freeware and can debug traffic from virtually any application, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and thousands more.
	MezerTools is a simple toolkit for UI designers and programmers to measure screen elements in pixels. By default, the hotkey is Win + C. Also, use Win + S to capture an arbitrary screen capture. Use Win + P to bring up the Mezer Dialog, to convert to/from hexadecimal, grab color codes from the screen, and double-click any applications window border to grow any window to the edge of the monitor. Also see Calupers from iconico for an unlimited free trial with more powerful features.
	Flash Player “Square” Preview Release (v10.1) supports Internet Explorer (64-Bit) editions, along with native 64-bit support on Linux, Mac OS, and Windows operating systems, including the Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 beta which offers accelerated rendering support.
	A codeplex utility called XP-More allows you to duplicate the “Windows XP Mode” virtual machine and create additional virtual machines based on it, but what it actually does is sets the copy as a “differencing” virtual machine, so to get a true copy, you would need to go into the settings, under the hard drive, and merge the parent into it. Also, you can use this utility to Launch the VM without a reboot.
	The Sysinternals troubleshooting utilities have been rolled into a single suite of tools called the Sysinternals Suite, which are very useful for doing deployments, such as psTools or psExec for updating the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) on test and production servers. The full suite includes file, disk, network, process, security, and system information tools.
	The Visual Studio extensions for SharePoint (VSeWSS v1.3) extensions are for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 development, including support for x64 machines, providing item templates for List Definition, List Definition from Content Type, Content Type, Field Control, Web Part, Module, Root File, Template, Event Receiver, and List Instance. It provides project templates for Team Site Definition, Blank Site Definition, List Definition, Web Part and Empty. It works with Visual Basic .NET and C# languages and a comprehensive user guide is included. See the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog for further specifics.
	The WSPBuilder Extensions (v0.9.9) is a codeplex SharePoint Solution Package (WSP) creation tool for WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007, including x86 & x64 support, and IIS 6 & IIS 7 support. WSPBuilder 2010 (v1.0.6) supports all the same systems as the previous WSPBuilder versions, so you can still use it for building SharePoint 2007 (WSS 3.0) solutions without any problems.
	.Net Reflector v6.5 lets you explort and analyze compiled .Net assemblies, viewing them in C# or Visual Basic. It now supports .Net 4.0 and includes a free trial to >Net Reflector Pro.
	See Windows 7 Update for the latest in Windows 7 developer tools, news, features, deployments, articles, training, resources, videos, support, forums, questions,  reviews, tips, and tricks.