Get Started Developing with Windows Communication Foundation

Download and Install Visual Studio 2008

Visual studio is the integrated development environment provided by Microsoft to create applications that use the .Net Framework.  A number of features make developing applications using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) easier with Visual Studio.  You can download the express version for free, or consider purchasing other versions that come packaged with larger feature sets.  The visual studio installer will install all dependencies required for building and running applications that use WCF.  This includes items such as the .Net Framework 3.5 and SQL Express 2008.

Download and Install .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1

This contains a number of upgraded features and fixes.  It is recommended that after installing Visual Studio 2008, you install Visual Studio 2008 SP1 which includes the .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 and a number of additional WCF features.

Download and Install the latest Windows SDK

Windows SDK comes with several additional tools that can aid in developing with WCF.  You have the choice of Windows SDK for many different Operating Systems.  Select the Operating System you plan on developing applications for.  While Windows SDK is not required for WCF development, you may find that you need some of the tools included as you begin to get involved in the development process.  WinSDK also includes an offline version of MSDN Library which includes the documentation for WCF and WCF code samples which may be helpful if your machine does not have internet access.  It is worth mentioning that a separate version of Windows SDK is included with Visual Studio, however, this does not include the complete set of tools, documentation, or sample code.

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