Silverlight 1.1 Tools Alpha for Visual Studio 2008 Available for Download

This afternoon we released an updated version of the Silverlight 1.1 Tools Alpha that works with the final release of Visual Studio 2008.  You can download it for free here.

The tools alpha refresh released today has the same feature-set as the Silverlight Tools Alpha add-on which was previously available for Visual Studio 2008 Beta2 (it has simply been updated to work with the final VS 2008 release).  This feature-set includes basic Silverlight 1.1 project system support, XAML markup editing and intellisense support, debugging support, Expression Blend project compatibility, and VB and C# code-behind intellisense.  You can find quickstart tutorials that detail how to use these features here.

The next public preview of Silverlight will include a ton of new runtime features, as well as a significantly enhanced VS 2008 tooling support.  I'll be blogging more details about this shortly.

Hope this helps,

Scott

52 Comments

  • When can we expect the final release of Silverlight 1.1?

  • that's great,and I really want to know how DLR supported in VS2008 RTM? I can't find anything about IronPython?

  • Downloaded and installed Silverlight 1.1 Tools Alpha for VS2008, when trying to create a new Silverlight C# project, got a popup error saying "The project file 'C:\Users\WeiH\AppData\Local\Temp\zhxiyguv.4rr\Temp\SilverlightProject1.csproj' cannot be opened. The project type is not supported by this installation."

    Noticed that zhxiyguv.4rr is a folder created at runtime when creating this new Silverlight project, and I do have full control over my profile folders. Checked the zhxiyguv.4rr and it is an empty folder.

    Also tried Silverlight VB project, same problem.

    I am running VS2008 Professional on Vista Enterprise Edition.

    Any thoughts?

    Regards,
    Wei Han
    IS
    Learning Tree International

  • Are Visual Studio Express SKU's supported? Or will I be forced to fire up ye'olde bittorrent?

  • Good work Scott (and team)! Looking forward to testing this!

  • you are the man SCOTT

  • Hi Fowl,

    >>>>>>> Are Visual Studio Express SKU's supported? Or will I be forced to fire up ye'olde bittorrent?

    Unfortunately right now the Silverlight tools add-on isn't supported by Visual Web Developer Express. It is something we are looking to hopefully enable in the future.

    Hope this helps,

    Scott

  • What about Silverlight 1.0?

    I've extracted the template ZIP file from the MSI archive, and have the Silverlight 1.0 JavaScript application template... But I'm not getting any intellisense.

    Will this update solve this problem? Would be greate on some tims on how to get a good Silverlight 1.0 dev environment on 2008. After all, Silverlight 1.0 has shipped and people are expecting a dev experience for that on their new VS version.

    Thanks,

    Jonas Follesø
    Microsoft Regional Director,
    Norway

  • Hi Wei,

    >>>>>>> Downloaded and installed Silverlight 1.1 Tools Alpha for VS2008, when trying to create a new Silverlight C# project, got a popup error saying "The project file 'C:\Users\WeiH\AppData\Local\Temp\zhxiyguv.4rr\Temp\SilverlightProject1.csproj' cannot be opened. The project type is not supported by this installation."

    I'm not sure why you are seeing that error. If you want to send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) I can have someone on the team take a look and figure out what is going on (maybe a permission issue?).

    Also - just to confirm. Are you using the tools alpha with the final release of Visual Studio 2008?

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Scott;

    Can you tell us, when will Blend2 become compatible with VS2008 RTM? I have not tried to install the September Release of Blend2 over VS2008 RTM, but doesn't it need to get updated as well?

    Thanks!
    ..Ben

  • Hi Ben,

    >>>>>>>> Can you tell us, when will Blend2 become compatible with VS2008 RTM? I have not tried to install the September Release of Blend2 over VS2008 RTM, but doesn't it need to get updated as well?

    I believe the Blend team will be releasing a Service Pack shortly that makes Blend compatible with VS 2008 and .NET 3.5. I'll blog it once it is available.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi Johan,

    >>>>>>> Sorry to be bugging you with a question before giving positive feedback :) I downloaded and installed it, but when I create a new project it does not compile because some of the references are missing.

    Do you have Silverlight 1.1 installed on your machine? Note that you need to have this installed as well to create projects with VS 2008 that target it.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Any chance we can do Silverlight 1.1 development in VS 2005? If not, MS needs to hurry up with supporting Silverlight 1.1 in the 2008 Express editions. And when can we expect a "beta" of Silverlight 1.1?

  • .NET Framework 1.1 is still under mainstream support. The last time 1.1 SP1 was released with XPSP2. Will there be a final 1.1 SP2 before mainstream support ends in 2008? And Tablet PC Edition 2005/Media Center Edition 2005 install .NET 1.0. Will that be serviced too with XPSP3?

  • Hi Scott,

    Does this install templates and intellisense for SL 1.0 as well as 1.1?

    Eagerly awaiting a SL 1.1 update but would like to also see more tool support for SL 1.0.

    Thanks,

    John

  • Did you plan to release the next Silverlight public preview until the end of the year?And what you will put in with shure and what you are not shure will be included ?!

  • Is the Silverlight alpha refresh 1.1.20926.0 still the latest version?
    Any upgrade to new version according 1.0 service release?

  • Hi, Nice to see this. Will it supports on Visual Webdeveloper 2008 ? Is there any way to get silverlight templates installed on web developer 2008 ?

  • Scott,

    This is good to know. However, the main thing that will help me is the controls support, both for Blend and Visual Studio. It's brutal not having access to any controls.

  • That's great Scott, any word on the Web Deployment Project release for VS2008?
    Thanks.

  • Are the winforms type controls (edit box, label, combo box, list box, and control tab order) included in silverlight 1.1? Our team is waiting on a minimalistic WinForms set of controls for our first Silverlight project

  • Thank you very much Scout

    When was ready the integration of Visual Studio 2008 XAML designer?

    I wait that GREAT day. ;-)

  • I got the same problem as Johan (post from 4:14AM)

    New and existing silverlight projects don't compile and the .net tab when trying to add references is empty.

    I installed VC# Express 2008 final, then Visual Studio Web Developer Express 2008 final, only then VS2008 RTM Team Suite 90 day trial
    All three went into the default location (could not be changed)

    r.

  • Hi Scott

    When do you expect the next public version of Silverlight 1.1 to be made available?

  • I really enjoyed reading your LINQ posts recently & understand that you were expecting to write 4 more on this topic. I know you must be very busy but wanted to find out if these are still going ahead & if so, are you likely to post them soom?

  • Hi Anonymous,

    >>>>>>> Any chance we can do Silverlight 1.1 development in VS 2005? If not, MS needs to hurry up with supporting Silverlight 1.1 in the 2008 Express editions.

    The Silverlight project support will only work with VS 2008. We will have express edition support for it in the future. In the meantime I'd also recommend downloading the trial editions of VS 2008 - these are free for 90 days and can be used to do Silverlight development.

    Hope this helps,

    Scott

  • Hi Anonymous,

    >>>>>>> .NET Framework 1.1 is still under mainstream support. The last time 1.1 SP1 was released with XPSP2. Will there be a final 1.1 SP2 before mainstream support ends in 2008? And Tablet PC Edition 2005/Media Center Edition 2005 install .NET 1.0. Will that be serviced too with XPSP3?

    We ship public patches and automatic updates for 1.1 via windows update several times a year. Service Packs are simply setups that roll up all of these updates - they aren't the only way to get these updates.

    Hope this helps,

    Scott

  • Hi John,

    >>>>>>>> Does this install templates and intellisense for SL 1.0 as well as 1.1? Eagerly awaiting a SL 1.1 update but would like to also see more tool support for SL 1.0.

    Unfortunately this alpha only supports Silverlight 1.1. We will be releasing a version of Expression Blend, though, that includes tool support for Silverlight 1.0.

    Here is a pointer to a project that provides JavaScript intellisense support in VS 2008 for Silverlight 1.0: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/08/01/vs-2008-javascript-intellisense-for-silverlight.aspx

    Hope this helps,

    Scott

  • Hi Navaneeth,

    >>>>>>> Will it supports on Visual Webdeveloper 2008 ? Is there any way to get silverlight templates installed on web developer 2008 ?

    Express support isn't there yet, but will be in the future. In the meantime I'd also recommend downloading the trial editions of VS 2008 - these are free for 90 days and can be used to do Silverlight development.

    Hope this helps,

    Scott

  • Hi Doug R,

    >>>>>>> This is good to know. However, the main thing that will help me is the controls support, both for Blend and Visual Studio. It's brutal not having access to any controls.

    The next public preview will have lots of new controls, data binding, layout management, and much more. I'll be blogging about some of these details soon.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi Chris,

    >>>>>>> That's great Scott, any word on the Web Deployment Project release for VS2008?

    We'll be shipping this shortly. Hopefully in the next few days.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi Bob,

    >>>>>>> Are the winforms type controls (edit box, label, combo box, list box, and control tab order) included in silverlight 1.1? Our team is waiting on a minimalistic WinForms set of controls for our first Silverlight project

    Yes - these will be in the next public preview.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi rko4u,

    >>>>>> I upgraded the silverlight 1.0.21115.0 plugin with the 1.1 alpha refresh. after that nothing works (not 1.0, not 1.1) can anyone tell me wat i've done wrong?

    Hard to say what is wrong with your machine. But if you send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) I can have someone help take a look to figure out.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi Robert,

    >>>>>>> New and existing silverlight projects don't compile and the .net tab when trying to add references is empty.

    Can you check to make sure you have Silverlight 1.1 installed on the machine? If so, send me email (scottgu@microsoft.com) and we can help figure out what is going wrong.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi Kiran,

    >>>>>> I really enjoyed reading your LINQ posts recently & understand that you were expecting to write 4 more on this topic. I know you must be very busy but wanted to find out if these are still going ahead & if so, are you likely to post them soom?

    I am still working on them - hopefully I will get a chance to write a few more later this year. :-)

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Thanks Scott Great to see this delivered so quickly!

  • Scott, enjoyed your talks at DevConnection. I downloaded the tool and had no problems except when tried to create a new silverlight project. I received the following error: "Project 'SilverlightProject4' could not be opend because the Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 compiler could not be created. Unable to find required file 'mscorlib.dll'" I am using this version of Visual Studio 2008:
    Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
    Version 9.0.21022.8 RTM
    Microsoft .NET Framework
    Version 3.5

    Installed Edition: Enterprise

    Microsoft Silverlight Projects 2007 91904-270-5322754-60266
    Microsoft Silvertlight Projects 2007
    Version 9.0.21022.16

    Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 91904-270-5322754-60266
    Microsoft Visual Basic 2008

    Microsoft Visual C# 2008 91904-270-5322754-60266
    Microsoft Visual C# 2008

    Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 91904-270-5322754-60266
    Microsoft Visual C++ 2008

    Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Tools for Office 91904-270-5322754-60266
    Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Tools for Office

    Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition 91904-270-5322754-60266
    Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition

    Portions of International CorrectSpellâ„¢ spelling correction system © 1993 by Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.

    The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition Copyright © 1992 Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.


    Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 91904-270-5322754-60266
    Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008

    Mahalo for all your great posts.

    Aloha,
    Kevin
    P.S. When are you coming to Hawaii? :-)

  • Scott,
    I got the same error as posted by Wei Han
    first time while creating the silver light project, it says

    Package Load Failure
    Package 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Silverlight.SLPackage, Microsoft.VisualStudio.Silverlight,Version = 9.0.0.0,Culture=neutral, PublickeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' has failed to load properly (GUID = {CB22EE0E-4072-4AE7-96E2-90FCCF879544}).

    After that i tried to create again then it says..

    "The project file 'C:\Users\WeiH\AppData\Local\Temp\zhxiyguv.4rr\Temp\SilverlightProject1.csproj' cannot be opened. The project type is not supported by this installation."


    What could be the reason?
    Thanks
    Kiran


  • Hi Kevin,

    >>>>>> Scott, enjoyed your talks at DevConnection. I downloaded the tool and had no problems except when tried to create a new silverlight project. I received the following error: "Project 'SilverlightProject4' could not be opend because the Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 compiler could not be created. Unable to find required file 'mscorlib.dll'" I am using this version of Visual Studio 2008:

    Let me know if you are still having problems with this. If so, send me email and I can have someone help.

    Thanks,

    Scott

  • Hi Scott,

    Thanks for your really interesting workshops in Amsterdam on Silverlight and VS2008 last June.

    I got the same error as Wei Han did. I uninstalled all, rebooted and tried again, same problem. I'm using Windows XP Pro. I checked and rechecked whether I used the correct version of the Silverlight Tools:
    1. Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Refresh runtime (September, but Splash says July).
    2. Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 Tools Alpha for Visual Studio 2008

    I will send you an e-mail with a dump of the exact error message.

    Thanks, Jan

  • "The next public preview of Silverlight will include a ton of new runtime features, as well as a significantly enhanced VS 2008 tooling support. I'll be blogging more details about this shortly. "

    Pandering! (I can't wait!) What is the difference between the Professional version and the Standard version, please?

    Thanks,

    Paolo

  • I'm having the same problem as Wei Han, Kiran, and Fast Bird. Has anyone found a solution?

  • Hi,
    I am having exactly the same problem like some of the others here in this forum. When trying to open a new silverlight project in VS 2008 pro trial version, load package failure. I have installed Silverlight 1.0SDK, Silverlight 1.1, Silverlight tool for VS 2008. If anyone has some advices I will be very grateful.

    "Package Load Failure"
    Microsoft.VisualStudio.Silverlight.SLPackage, Microsoft.VisualStudio.Silverlight, Version=9.0.0.0
    has failed to load properly

    Thanks, Filip

  • Dear Scott,

    I think that i have the same problem of filip
    i have made a fresh intallation of WinXP SP2 and VS2008 and the silverlight 1.1 and and asp.net futures and silverlight the tools for VS2008.
    now when i try to create a new silverlight project or navigate to Help >> About
    i get this error
    ------------------------------------------
    Package Load Failure

    Package 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Silverlight.SLPackage, Microsoft.VisualStudio.Silverlight, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' has failed to load properly ( GUID = {CB22EE0E-4072-4AE7-96E2-90FCCF879544} ). Please contact package vendor for assistance. Application restart is recommended, due to possible environment corruption. Would you like to disable loading this package in the future? You may use 'devenv /resetskippkgs' to re-enable package loading.
    ----------------------------------
    what could have went wrong?

  • Project 'projectname' could not be opened because the Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 compiler could not be created. Unable to find required file 'mscorlib.dll'

    I'm getting this in XP and Vista(64). Running VS 2008. Really frustrating. Trying to understand exactly what Silverlight is by attempting to use it..

    Which brings up another really frustrating issue. I'm no guru. Far from it. Like many people i experience a lot of benefit from sub-beginner examples/tutorials. Maybe a simple explanation of what Silverlight is (Beyond being a "flash killer"). How about a "Hello world" project in VS 2008? Also unable to run either expression web or blend in xp. dump.

  • Solution to:

    "Project 'SilverlightProject4' could not be opend because the Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 compiler could not be created. Unable to find required file 'mscorlib.dll'"

    Remove VB from VS2008. Ofcourse if you need VB this is not a real solution. If you don't and you want to create a Silverlight project then dump VB.

  • Altough we would like to target Silverlight 2.0, our developer team can not wait for that release and we don´t feel comfortable using either version 1.0 or the alpha version (for diferent reasons). What do you think it's the best aproach to that?. Going on to a XBAP and latter move on to Silverlight?

  • I'm trying to install Silverlight 1.1 tools alpha on my Vista with Visual Studio 2008 Development edition, but I got problems to add silver references. When compiling the problem, I have following errors/warnings:

    C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.Common.targets : warning MSB3245: Could not resolve this reference. Could not locate the assembly "system.Xml.core". Check to make sure the assembly exists on disk. If this reference is required by your code, you may get compilation errors.
    C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.Common.targets : warning MSB3245: Could not resolve this reference. Could not locate the assembly "system.silverlight". Check to make sure the assembly exists on disk. If this reference is required by your code, you may get compilation errors.
    C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.Common.targets : warning MSB3245: Could not resolve this reference. Could not locate the assembly "agclr". Check to make sure the assembly exists on disk. If this reference is required by your code, you may get compilation errors.
    C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Csc.exe /noconfig /nowarn:1701,1702 /nostdlib+ /errorreport:prompt /warn:4 /define:DEBUG;TRACE /reference:C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_32\mscorlib\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\mscorlib.dll /reference:"C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5\System.Core.dll" /reference:C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\system\2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089\system.dll /debug+ /debug:full /optimize- /out:obj\Debug\SilverlightProject2.dll /target:library Page.xaml.cs Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs C:\temp\SilverlightProject2\SilverlightProject2\obj\Debug\Page.g.cs
    C:\temp\SilverlightProject2\SilverlightProject2\Page.xaml.cs(2,14): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'Windows' does not exist in the namespace 'System' (are you missing an assembly reference?)
    C:\temp\SilverlightProject2\SilverlightProject2\Page.xaml.cs(3,14): error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'Windows' does not exist in the namespace 'System' (are you missing an assembly reference?)

    Any idea?

  • Seems that this is a recurring problem -not sure how to fix it yet though.

    Package 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Silverlight.SLPackage, Microsoft.VisualStudio.Silverlight, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' has failed to load properly ( GUID = {CB22EE0E-4072-4AE7-96E2-90FCCF879544} ). Please contact package vendor for assistance. Application restart is recommended, due to possible environment corruption. Would you like to disable loading this package in the future? You may use 'devenv /resetskippkgs' to re-enable package loading.

  • I was getting this message if I create project in VB.

    Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 compiler could not be created. Unable to find required file 'mscorlib.dll'"

    I created project in C# it worked fine.

    Is there a bug in VB ?


  • I download VisualStudio 2008 Beta 2 and Microsoft Silverlight tools Alpha for VisualStudio 2008 Beta 2, then new a silverlight project under c#/office, then I got a error:

    Package load Failure

    Package 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Silverlight.SLPackage, Microsoft.VisualStudio.Silverlight, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublickKeyToken=b03f5f7ff11d50a3a' has failed to load properly(
    GUID = {CB22EE0E-4072-4AE7-96E2-90FCCF879544} ) ......

    How to solve it?

  • For some reason during certain installations of the siverlight SDK, not all of the files get copied into c:\progrm files\microsoft silverlight

    if you are having the mscorlib.dll compiler issue, it is likely you only have a few files in that folder - there should be about 23 files. I copied over the contents of that folder from a machien with a working silverlight intallation and it solved the problem. If you dont know anyone who has this working, I'm not sure what to tell you, but if you can get this working anywhere, just copy over all the files in that folder on the broken machine and you're in business.

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