The Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 provides prerelease documentation, samples, header files, libraries, and tools (including C++ compilers) you need to develop applications to run on prerelease versions of Windows Server 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 Beta2. To build and run .NET Framework applications, you must have the corresponding version of the .NET Framework installed.

This SDK is compatible with the RTM release of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1; including Microsoft Visual Studio Express Editions, which are available, free of charge. Pre-release editions of the next version of Microsoft Visual Studio are available from Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Beta2 and can also be used with this SDK.

Compilers and Build Environments: In addition to the headers and libraries used to build 32 and 64-bit Win32 Windows applications, the Windows SDK includes command line C++ compilers for both 32 and 64-bit development that are compatible with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Beta2.

Tools: The Windows SDK includes more than 100 GUI and command-line tools to aid in the development of native (Win32) and managed (.NET Framework) systems for the Windows platform.

Documentation: The Windows SDK documentation contains task-based how-to documentation, API reference topics, and feature overviews to help you develop applications using Win32 and .NET Framework APIs.

Samples: Two sets of samples are included by default: .NET Framework samples and Win32 samples. The .NET Framework samples are available both in the SDK documentation and in the .zip files located in the file system under the Sample install directory. The Win32 samples are available only in the file system under the Sample install directory.

Requirements:

· Hard disk space - choose a disk drive with a minimum of 2.5 GB of free space.

· We highly recommend that you have your machine fully patched through Microsoft Update before beginning setup.

· The .NET Framework 3.0 tools and samples contained in this SDK are designed to work on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista without need of an additional download. If you installed this SDK on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, you will need to install the .NET Framework 3.0

· The .NET Framework 3.5 tools and samples contained in this SDK require installation of the .NET Framework 3.5 which is available with Visual Studio 2008 or a standalone install of the .NET Framework 3.5.