Developer Resources for Getting Started with Windows 7

Earlier today, the Internet nearly melted as news spread that Windows 7 RTM had been made available to MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers. Now that the download frenzy has subsided a little, I suspect that many developers are asking themselves an important question: How can I start building applications on this OS? Fortunately, folks on the Windows team have made available a ton of technical resources for developers to use. You'll find them listed on the following blog post:

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/developers/archive/2009/08/06/windows-7-rtm-go-get-it.aspx

In order to get your feet wet, you'll want to start with the Windows 7 Training Kit for Developers.

 

Inside, you'll find presentations, hands-on labs, and demos covering every nook & cranny of the OS. This training kit is an essential resource for Win32 and .NET developers wanting to target Windows 7.

After arming yourself with the technical information you'll need to better understand how Windows 7 works under the hood, you'll want to download the Windows API Code Pack for the .NET Framework. This is an essential resources for developers since it provides a source code library that can be used to access some new Windows 7 features (and some existing features of older versions of Windows operating system) from managed code (i.e. C#).

Need a break from coding? Why not check out the Windows section on Channel 9!

You'll find a ton of great videos from folks on the Windows team, outlining the many features of this great OS. One of my favourite videos at the moment is entitled, "Farewell to the Windows Kernel Dispatcher Lock". It's an interview with kernel developer, Arun Kishan about his work on Windows. It's a little in-depth but it's fascinating to listen to how Arun was able to eliminate the need for the dispatcher lock in the Windows kernel.

This article also appears on the Canadian Developer Connection blog here.