Visual Studio code name “Orcas” delivers on Microsoft’s vision of smart client applications by enabling developers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality rich user experiences. This new version enables any size organization to rapidly create more secure, manageable, and more reliable applications that take advantage of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System. By building these new types of applications, organizations will find it easier than ever before to capture and analyze information so that they can make effective business decisions.

This download is the March 2007 Community Technology Preview of Microsoft Visual Studio Code-Named “Orcas”. This CTP is available in English only.

Note: This CTP is available as a Virtual PC image or as a self-extracting install. If you wish to use the Virtual PC image you will need Virtual PC or Virtual Server to run this image. If you wish to use the self extracting install, we advise that you do not install this on a production machine. Depending on your hardware the download files make take between 30-60 minutes to decompress.

This CTP targets early adopters of the Microsoft technology, platform, and tools offerings. It enables developers to experience the upcoming toolset and underlying platform improvements. We designed this release to enable developers try out new technology and product changes, but not to build production systems. This limitation is fully covered in the EULA that accompanies this CTP.


Instructions
To install, follow these instructions in the exact order shown
· Download and install Virtual PC 2004 SP1 (or Virtual Server 2005 R2 )
· Download the Base image (one-time only): Save the self-extracting base image VSCTPBase.exe and extract to a folder on your computer. This base contains the Operating system and is common to all "Orcas" CTPs.
· Click the Download button on this page to download all parts of the Visual Studio Code Name Orcas January CTP. The first part is a self-extracting EXE and will prompt for the other parts.
· Click on the self extracting VSJan2007CTP.exe to extract the file. Extract the file to the same folder as the base. This file contains all the new VS content and will change from CTP to CTP. You will need to read and accept the EULA before extraction proceeds.
· Launch the Virtual PC Console using Start|Programs|Microsoft Virtual PC.
· Click the New button to launch the “New Virtual Machine Wizard”.
· Navigate to the Options page and select "Add An existing Virtual Machine" radio button.
· Click the Browse button and navigate to the location you extracted the files to and select VSODec2006CTP.vmc image
· You will be prompted for the location of the base image and you should point to the Base01.vhd that you extracted earlier and click OK
· Clear the “When I finish, open settings” checkbox and click OK
· Select the new image entry and click Start
· To logon to the machine, click on Action Menu (Shortcut: Right Alt+Del) on the VPC console and use the credentials above


Here are some key features of "Microsoft Visual Studio CTP":

Extended, more powerful data APIs with the ADO.NET Entity Framework and LINQ to ADO.NET
· With the ADO.NET Entity Framework developers will be able to model the view of the data that is appropriate for each one of the applications they are building, independently of the structure of the data in the underlying database. The use of the Entity Data Model (EDM) enables developers to design models that follow the concepts built into the application, instead of having to map them to constructs available in relational stores. Once the model is in place, the powerful ADO.NET Entity Framework API is used to access and manipulate the data as .NET classes or as rows and columns, whatever is appropriate for each application.
· ADO.NET is fully integrated with LINQ and offers many options for using LINQ in various scenarios: LINQ to SQL provides direct access to database tables from the programming environment, LINQ to Entities enables developers to use LINQ over EDM models, and LINQ to DataSet allows the full expressivity of LINQ to be used over DataSets.

C# 3.0 Language Support: This CTP implements all of the C#3.0 language features from the May LINQ CTP including:
· Query Expressions
· Object and Collection Initializers
· Extension Methods
· Local Variable Type Inference and Anonymous Types
· Lambdas bound to Delegates and Expression trees

LINQ to Objects API
· The LINQ to Objects API supports queries over any .NET collection, such as arrays and Generic Lists. This API is defined in the System.Linq namespaces inside System.Core.dll. Click here for more details about LINQ.

ClickOnce improvements
· This CTP delivers ClickOnce improvements for the deployment of Windows Presentation Foundation applications, alternative browser support and ISV rebranding.

Managed classes for Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman and Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm cryptographic functionality
· With the addition of these classes, cryptographic developers now have managed classes for Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman secret agreement and Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm signing. These classes are built on the new CNG cryptographic libraries in Windows Vista, but still follow the familiar patterns of the cryptographic classes in .NET Framework 2.0.

Runtime and design-time support for Office 2007 (including Outlook 2007)
· Customers can build managed code add-ins with a consistent development experience, regardless of which version of Office they target, which Office application(s) they target, and which programming language they choose. Managed code add-ins enable developers to use strongly-typed class members, with the help of modern development tools, including intellisense and auto-complete. Additionally add-ins can potentially run in multiple versions of Office, enabled by abstracting version-specific code and supported by a version-resilient infrastructure.

Support for advanced lifetime management of add-ins and their AppDomains
· We’ve added the helper classes that manage the lifetime of add-ins, the objects passed between the host and add-ins, and even of the AppDomains the add-ins live in. By using the ContractBase and LifetimeToken handle, pipeline developer can let the hosts and add-ins act as if everything, including the AppDomain the add-in was activated in, was controlled by the garbage collector even though .Net Remoting would normally make that impossible.

Client service support for Login/Logout, Role management and Profiles
· ASP.NET 2.0 shipped with new application services for authentication, authorization and personalization. Most of these services are not tied to ASP.NET and can work in non-web applications. This CTP enables the use of these services in smart client applications for Logon/Logoff, Role management and profiles.

A trace listener that logs event to ETW, event tracing for Windows in Vista
· Event tracing for windows is greatly improved in Vista and the most performant loggings facility available in Windows. The System.Diagnostics.EventProviderTraceListener allows managed tracing to provide events to the Vista’s ETW infrastructure. This is a highly performant, thread-safe listener.

Jscript Intellisense support
· Jscript code formatting and Intellisense support provide developers with a richer editing experience. These improvements enable the IDE to provide statement completion, color syntax highlighting and in-place documentation to Jscript and associated script models such as ASP.NET AJAX.

A new numeric type that provides support for very large numbers (Beyond the range of In64)
· All existing numeric types in the Framework have a limited range. This is the first type that supports arbitrary range and will extend to accommodate any large number as needed. This type lives in the new System.Numeric namespace where all new numeric and arithmetic features are going to reside. It supports all the basic arithmetic operations including things like Pow, DivRem and GreatestCommonDivisor. It implements the following interfaces: IFormattable, IComparable, IComparable and IEquatable . It is serliazable and immutable. It has implicit casts from all basic integral types and explicit casts to/from all numeric type. To learn more about this type – please visit the BCL team blog.

LINQ over XML (XLinq)
· Enable further LINQ over XML feature support (in addition to the functionality available in the Oct 2006 CTP) such as the ability to apply XLST to transform into and out of XLinq trees, support for System.XML reader/writer interfaces for improved XML sharing with DOM applications and System.XML schema validation for XLinq nodes.

SQL Server Compact Edition (SSCE)
· SQL Server Compact Edition (SSCE) provides a local relational data store for occasionally connected client applications from desktops to devices. SSCE is light weight, embeddable and is easy to deploy with your client applications without requiring complex administration work from users. Timestamp (row version id) data type, improved table designer, Query processor enhancements and support for local transaction scope are some of the new features you find in this version of SSCE.


Existing CTPs: As Visual Studio code name “Orcas” CTPs are released on a predefined cadence, existing CTPs (such as the LINQ May 2006 CTP) may not yet have been integrated into a given “Orcas” CTP release (This should not be taken as a change in commitment to any existing technology that has been made available as a CTP but instead is just a real world example of how large applications, with many technology areas, are built. We will be integrating this existing functionality into future CTP builds.

Developers using a VPC image can run the CTP on a machine without impacting any existing software installations. The CTP can be removed by deleting the folder and using the Virtual PC application to remove the configuration information.

This image ships with networking set to “local”. This setting enables the virtual machine to think it is connected to a network without actually connecting and exposing the machine to the Internet. We recommend that customers do not modify the networking settings. Customers who wish to turn networking “on” to connect the image to a physical network are advised that they will need to ensure the security of the virtual machine as well as apply any security updates that may have become available since the release of this image.

Virtual Midi Controller LE is a midi utility. It has a virtual midi keyboard for
playing midi notes, and a knob and faders to control modulation & other midi events.

It can be used in place of a real midi controller/control surface. Virtual Midi Controller LE is the little brother of Virtual Midi Controller application. In other words, it’s the free version.

Here are some key features of "Virtual Midi Controller LE":

· Use the computer keyboard to play midi notes & events.
· Knobs, faders & other controls to send midi events.
· A virtual midi port for directly connecting the VMC-LE with other software. Midi loopback drivers are not needed to connect VMC-LE with programs like Cubase and Sonar.
· A midi event control for viewing and sending midi ccs & other non-note events.

Virtual Midi Controller is a general-purpose midi utility which lets you operate your computer as a MIDI keyboard.

Here are some key features of "Virtual Midi Controller":

· Use the computer keyboard to play midi. Most keys are customizable.
· Translate/re-route midi inputs.
· Customizable control screen. Controls can be assigned a midi event & can be linked.
· Layers control how midi is sent, multiple layers per program.
· Midi events can be assigned to zones. Zones control which layers to play & can be independently transposed.
· Arpeggio & transform functions which can be used together to play sequences.
· Diatonic transpose - can be used to make 1-finger chords and/or can be used with the transform function to make diatonic arpeggios.
· Midi buffer records all midi events sent to each midi output. Buffer size is user definable.
· 50 programs. Able to save/load individual programs or entire bank to/from files.
· A virtual midi port for directly connecting the vmc to other software. Midi loopback drivers are no longer needed to connect vmc with programs like Cubase and Sonar.
· A Global Keyboard function which lets computer keyboard presses take effect whether or not vmc is in the foreground.
· A midi event control for viewing and sending midi ccs & other non-note events.
· Toggle mode in which 1 keypress does a note-on and a 2nd keypress does a note-off.


Limitations:

· 30 dya trial

Microsoft Visual Studio description
Microsoft offers Visual Studio for professional developers working alone or in small teams Visual Studio code name “Orcas” delivers on Microsoft’s vision of smart client applications by enabling developers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality rich user experiences.

This new version enables any size organization to rapidly create more secure, manageable, and more reliable applications that take advantage of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System. By building these new types of applications, organizations will find it easier than ever before to capture and analyze information so that they can make effective business decisions.

This download is the March 2007 Community Technology Preview of Microsoft Visual Studio Code-Named “Orcas”. This CTP is available in English only.

Note: This CTP is available as a Virtual PC image or as a self-extracting install. If you wish to use the Virtual PC image you will need Virtual PC or Virtual Server to run this image. If you wish to use the self extracting install, we advise that you do not install this on a production machine. Depending on your hardware the download files make take between 30-60 minutes to decompress.

This CTP targets early adopters of the Microsoft technology, platform, and tools offerings. It enables developers to experience the upcoming toolset and underlying platform improvements. We designed this release to enable developers try out new technology and product changes, but not to build production systems. This limitation is fully covered in the EULA that accompanies this CTP.


Instructions
To install, follow these instructions in the exact order shown
· Download and install Virtual PC 2004 SP1 (or Virtual Server 2005 R2 )
· Download the Base image (one-time only): Save the self-extracting base image VSCTPBase.exe and extract to a folder on your computer. This base contains the Operating system and is common to all "Orcas" CTPs.
· Click the Download button on this page to download all parts of the Visual Studio Code Name Orcas January CTP. The first part is a self-extracting EXE and will prompt for the other parts.
· Click on the self extracting VSJan2007CTP.exe to extract the file. Extract the file to the same folder as the base. This file contains all the new VS content and will change from CTP to CTP. You will need to read and accept the EULA before extraction proceeds.
· Launch the Virtual PC Console using Start|Programs|Microsoft Virtual PC.
· Click the New button to launch the “New Virtual Machine Wizard”.
· Navigate to the Options page and select "Add An existing Virtual Machine" radio button.
· Click the Browse button and navigate to the location you extracted the files to and select VSODec2006CTP.vmc image
· You will be prompted for the location of the base image and you should point to the Base01.vhd that you extracted earlier and click OK
· Clear the “When I finish, open settings” checkbox and click OK
· Select the new image entry and click Start
· To logon to the machine, click on Action Menu (Shortcut: Right Alt+Del) on the VPC console and use the credentials above


Here are some key features of "Microsoft Visual Studio CTP":

Extended, more powerful data APIs with the ADO.NET Entity Framework and LINQ to ADO.NET
· With the ADO.NET Entity Framework developers will be able to model the view of the data that is appropriate for each one of the applications they are building, independently of the structure of the data in the underlying database. The use of the Entity Data Model (EDM) enables developers to design models that follow the concepts built into the application, instead of having to map them to constructs available in relational stores. Once the model is in place, the powerful ADO.NET Entity Framework API is used to access and manipulate the data as .NET classes or as rows and columns, whatever is appropriate for each application.
· ADO.NET is fully integrated with LINQ and offers many options for using LINQ in various scenarios: LINQ to SQL provides direct access to database tables from the programming environment, LINQ to Entities enables developers to use LINQ over EDM models, and LINQ to DataSet allows the full expressivity of LINQ to be used over DataSets.

C# 3.0 Language Support: This CTP implements all of the C#3.0 language features from the May LINQ CTP including:
· Query Expressions
· Object and Collection Initializers
· Extension Methods
· Local Variable Type Inference and Anonymous Types
· Lambdas bound to Delegates and Expression trees

LINQ to Objects API
· The LINQ to Objects API supports queries over any .NET collection, such as arrays and Generic Lists. This API is defined in the System.Linq namespaces inside System.Core.dll. Click here for more details about LINQ.

ClickOnce improvements
· This CTP delivers ClickOnce improvements for the deployment of Windows Presentation Foundation applications, alternative browser support and ISV rebranding.

Managed classes for Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman and Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm cryptographic functionality
· With the addition of these classes, cryptographic developers now have managed classes for Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman secret agreement and Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm signing. These classes are built on the new CNG cryptographic libraries in Windows Vista, but still follow the familiar patterns of the cryptographic classes in .NET Framework 2.0.

Runtime and design-time support for Office 2007 (including Outlook 2007)
· Customers can build managed code add-ins with a consistent development experience, regardless of which version of Office they target, which Office application(s) they target, and which programming language they choose. Managed code add-ins enable developers to use strongly-typed class members, with the help of modern development tools, including intellisense and auto-complete. Additionally add-ins can potentially run in multiple versions of Office, enabled by abstracting version-specific code and supported by a version-resilient infrastructure.

Support for advanced lifetime management of add-ins and their AppDomains
· We’ve added the helper classes that manage the lifetime of add-ins, the objects passed between the host and add-ins, and even of the AppDomains the add-ins live in. By using the ContractBase and LifetimeToken handle, pipeline developer can let the hosts and add-ins act as if everything, including the AppDomain the add-in was activated in, was controlled by the garbage collector even though .Net Remoting would normally make that impossible.

Client service support for Login/Logout, Role management and Profiles
· ASP.NET 2.0 shipped with new application services for authentication, authorization and personalization. Most of these services are not tied to ASP.NET and can work in non-web applications. This CTP enables the use of these services in smart client applications for Logon/Logoff, Role management and profiles.

A trace listener that logs event to ETW, event tracing for Windows in Vista
· Event tracing for windows is greatly improved in Vista and the most performant loggings facility available in Windows. The System.Diagnostics.EventProviderTraceListener allows managed tracing to provide events to the Vista’s ETW infrastructure. This is a highly performant, thread-safe listener.

Jscript Intellisense support
· Jscript code formatting and Intellisense support provide developers with a richer editing experience. These improvements enable the IDE to provide statement completion, color syntax highlighting and in-place documentation to Jscript and associated script models such as ASP.NET AJAX.

A new numeric type that provides support for very large numbers (Beyond the range of In64)
· All existing numeric types in the Framework have a limited range. This is the first type that supports arbitrary range and will extend to accommodate any large number as needed. This type lives in the new System.Numeric namespace where all new numeric and arithmetic features are going to reside. It supports all the basic arithmetic operations including things like Pow, DivRem and GreatestCommonDivisor. It implements the following interfaces: IFormattable, IComparable, IComparable and IEquatable . It is serliazable and immutable. It has implicit casts from all basic integral types and explicit casts to/from all numeric type. To learn more about this type – please visit the BCL team blog.

LINQ over XML (XLinq)
· Enable further LINQ over XML feature support (in addition to the functionality available in the Oct 2006 CTP) such as the ability to apply XLST to transform into and out of XLinq trees, support for System.XML reader/writer interfaces for improved XML sharing with DOM applications and System.XML schema validation for XLinq nodes.

SQL Server Compact Edition (SSCE)
· SQL Server Compact Edition (SSCE) provides a local relational data store for occasionally connected client applications from desktops to devices. SSCE is light weight, embeddable and is easy to deploy with your client applications without requiring complex administration work from users. Timestamp (row version id) data type, improved table designer, Query processor enhancements and support for local transaction scope are some of the new features you find in this version of SSCE.


Existing CTPs: As Visual Studio code name “Orcas” CTPs are released on a predefined cadence, existing CTPs (such as the LINQ May 2006 CTP) may not yet have been integrated into a given “Orcas” CTP release (This should not be taken as a change in commitment to any existing technology that has been made available as a CTP but instead is just a real world example of how large applications, with many technology areas, are built. We will be integrating this existing functionality into future CTP builds.

Developers using a VPC image can run the CTP on a machine without impacting any existing software installations. The CTP can be removed by deleting the folder and using the Virtual PC application to remove the configuration information.

This image ships with networking set to “local”. This setting enables the virtual machine to think it is connected to a network without actually connecting and exposing the machine to the Internet. We recommend that customers do not modify the networking settings. Customers who wish to turn networking “on” to connect the image to a physical network are advised that they will need to ensure the security of the virtual machine as well as apply any security updates that may have become available since the release of this image.


Requirements:

· Processor: 1.6GHz Pentium III+
· RAM: 1 GB of available physical RAM*
* The amount of physical RAM depends on what applications are running on the client machine. You can use the Task Manager to identify how much physical RAM is available on your machine. Running applications other than VirtualPC will consume available physical RAM.
· VPC Credentials:
Username: Administrator Password: P2ssw0rd (NOTE: Microsoft strongly recommends that immediately after installation you log in and change the administrator password)
· Required Software:
* Virtual PC 2004 SP1, or Virtual Server 2005 R2
· NOTE: Virtual PC 2004 is currently not supported on Windows Vista and is required for this CTP. Therefore this CTP is not currently supported under Windows Vista.
· Visual Studio Code Name Orcas Base Image: contains the OS and is a one-time download for all the Virtual PC images that lay on top of it.