.NET Micro Framework Wiki :: Getting the tools

Contents 1 Get Visual C# 2010 Express Edition 2 Get the .NET Micro Framework SDK 3 Optional: Get the Vendor SDK

Get Visual C# 2010 Express Edition

To use .NET Micro Framework you need Visual C# 2010 Express Edition. Although it's free, it's still very powerful. You can use the Express edition to do general application development as well as Windows Phone and .NET Micro Framework development. If you already have a licensed copy of Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, Premium or Professional editions with C# language support, you don't need to install the Express edition of Visual C# 2010 to do .NET Micro Framework development.

To download Visual C# 2010 Express:

• Go to the Visual Studio 2010 Express page
• Click on the Visual C# 2010 Express link
• Choose your language and the web downloader application will begin to download
• Make whatever choices are necessary in your web browser to save the EXE file and run it
• The installer runs which can take some time, depending on the software already installed on your system and your network speed

Get the .NET Micro Framework SDK

After you installed Visual C# 2010 Express (or the Ultimate, Premium or Professional edition you may have licensed), you need the .NET Micro Framework Software Development Kit. In the SDK you will find the following:

• C# Project templates for the .NET Micro Framework
• Sample projects
• The emulator
• MFDeploy, General .NET Micro Framework Deployment program
• MFSvcUtil, Program to create DPWS Hosted service and Device proxy files
• TFConvert.exe, A Truetype to Tiny font converter

To download the .NET Micro Framework SDK:

• Go to the Micro Framework Technology website
• Choose the "Download SDK" link which may not take you to the latest version of the SDK but a direct link to v4.1 of the SDK is available here
• Download the SDK
• Run the installer

Optional: Get the Vendor SDK

If you already own a .NET Micro Framework Kit you should have a look at the vendor's website to see if they have their own SDK. In most cases this SDK contains one or more additional hardware libraries, a custom emulator, C# Example software and hardware information.