Windows SDK Release Notes

1. Welcome

Welcome to the Windows® Software Development Kit (SDK) for Microsoft Windows Server code name “Longhorn” and .NET Framework 3.5. The Windows SDK contains documentation, samples, headers, libraries, and tools designed to help you develop Windows applications.

Please note that this release is for preview purposes only. The APIs, documentation, samples, headers, libraries, and tools provided in this release are preliminary and subject to change.

Note: this release of the Windows SDK does NOT include .NET Framework 3.5.

Note: This edition of the Windows SDK includes a large file composed of the .NET Framework reference documentation. Because the file is so large, installing the Windows SDK might fail in certain networking environments. More information is available in the Downloading section.

1.1 Other Tools and Downloads

Microsoft offers additional free developer tools and resources including:

  • The Vista Developer Center is the official site about product development. It includes product information, news, tools, and code samples.
  • Microsoft Visual Studio Express is a set of free, lightweight and easy-to-use tools for the hobbyist, novice and student developer.
  • Microsoft Windows PowerShell command line shell and scripting language helps IT Professionals achieve greater productivity. Using a new admin-focused scripting language, more than 130 standard command line tools, and consistent syntax and utilities, Windows PowerShell allows IT Professionals to more easily control system administration and accelerate automation. PowerShell is currently not supported on ia64. Samples requiring PowerShell will not compile on an ia64 machine. More information on Windows PowerShell is available from the PowerShell Team Blog and the Windows PowerShell Technology Center.
  • The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly WinFX), is the new managed code programming model for Windows. It combines the power of the .NET Framework 2.0 with four new technologies: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), and Windows CardSpace (WCS, formerly "InfoCard").
  • LUA Buglight™ is a tool to help both developers and IT Pros (sysadmins) identify the specific causes of admin-permissions issues (a.k.a., “LUA bugs”) in desktop applications running on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista. Once the specific causes have been identified, the bugs can more easily be resolved by fixing the app’s source code, or by making configuration changes, allowing the app to work correctly for non-admin users.

2. License Agreement

The contents included in the Windows SDK are licensed to you, the end user. Your use of the SDK is subject to the terms of an End User License Agreement ("EULA") accompanying the SDK and located in the \License subdirectory. You must read and accept the terms of the EULA before you access or use the SDK. If you do not agree to the terms of the EULA, you are not authorized to use the SDK.

3. Supported Compiler, Platforms and Related Software

This release of the Windows SDK supports the RTM release of Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 SP1. Express Editions of Visual Studio are available to download from the Visual Studio Express site, free of charge.

This release of the Windows SDK supports x86, x64, IA64 platforms for building and running samples on Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows Vista, and Windows Server codename "Longhorn".

4. Downloading and Installing

To optimize your Windows SDK setup experience, we strongly recommend that you install the latest updates and patches from Microsoft Update before you begin installing the Windows SDK.

4.1 Downloading

This version of the Windows SDK is available as a DVD ISO image only.

The DVD ISO image of the Windows SDK available from Download Center will not install the SDK directly on to your hard disk without the use of additional tools. See the Installation Instructions below for more information. The DVD ISO image requires a minimum of 1.4 GB of free disk space to install. If you do not have that much free disk space, you can use the SDK's custom setup options to install a subset of the content.

4.1.1 Important Note

This edition of the Windows SDK includes a large file composed of the .NET Framework reference documentation. Because the file is so large, installing the Windows SDK might fail in certain networking environments.

If you do not want the .NET Framework documentation, deselect this install option in the Windows SDK setup program.

If you do want the .NET Framework documentation, make sure you have either burned the ISO image to DVD for use in the DVD drive in your local computer, or you have mounted the ISO image locally on your computer, or you have copied the contents of the ISO locally to your computer before running the Windows SDK setup program.

4.2 Installation

It is recommended that the Windows SDK be installed on a clean machine or completely uninstall any pre-releases of the WinFX Runtime Components 3.0, the WinFX SDK, the Platform SDK, the Windows SDK, Microsoft Visual Studio®, and their dependencies before installing this release. These older components may interfere with this release, causing setup to fail or break functionality.

Note that you may see more than one Windows SDK product listed in the Upgrade Options screen. All of the Windows SDK products may be removed by going to Add/Remove Programs, browsing for the Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit, and selecting Remove (in Windows XPSP2 and Windows Server 2003) or Uninstall (in Windows Vista or later).

To install the Windows SDK:

  1. If you intend to install the .NET Framework 3.0 components available in the Windows SDK, install the .NET Framework 3.0 from the Download Center. (Not required on Windows Vista or later)
  2. If you downloaded the SDK as an ISO, either burn the ISO to DVD media or mount it on a virtual drive. From that ISO, double-click setup.exe to begin the SDK setup.
  3. Follow the instructions in the Windows SDK Setup wizard.
  4. Optional: Install Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
  5. Optional: Install the Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 from the Download Center.
  6. Access the Windows SDK through the Start menu at Microsoft Windows SDK. The Start menu folder contains pointers to the documentation (which contains the samples for .NET Framework 3.0), tools, debug and release build environments.

Note: If you intend to use Visual Studio to develop .NET Framework 3.0 applications, you must install the Windows SDK before installing the Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for .NET Framework 3.0. It is essential that you use the version of Visual Studio identified in the Installation Instructions in .NET Framework 3.0 setup.

4.3 Uninstalling

The Windows SDK installs both its core components and external applications as separate MSI files. Please note that several applications might need to be uninstalled from Add/Remove Programs in order to remove all SDK components. Those components are:

  • Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit
  • Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 2.0
  • Microsoft FxCop 1.3.5
  • Microsoft Document Explorer

Note that you may have installed some of these applications outside of your SDK installation. Removing those applications from Add/Remove Programs will make those applications unavailable for other applications that may use them.

Due to SDK componentization, we recommend re-running the SDK setup.exe from your download location and choosing which features to install. For example, if you choose "Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit" from Add/Remove Programs and then "Change," you will see a different screen that does not show all the internal and external content installed as MSI files.

If you originally only installed the x86 development environment and now want to install the x64 or IA64 development environment, you need to relaunch the SDK setup.exe versus launching the "Change" functionality for the "Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit" located in Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel.

4.4 Win32 C++ Development with the Windows SDK and Visual Studio 2005

In order to utilize Windows SDK headers, libraries, and tools within Visual Studio 2005, the SDK-provided Visual Studio registration tool must first be run. The Visual Studio registration tool must run in elevated administrator mode on a Windows Vista computer. When running this tool on a Windows Vista machine it must be run for each user.

To run the Visual Studio Registration Tool, go to:

Start --> All Programs --> Microsoft Windows SDK --> Visual Studio Registration--> Integrate Windows SDK Directories with Visual Studio 2005.

4.5 Building Samples

When building Samples, do so in a directory outside of Program Files to which you have write access. To build from the command line:

  1. Copy the sample to a working folder not under Program Files. Copying to a location other than Program Files makes it possible to maintain a pristine copy of the samples installed by the SDK as well as avoid issues when writing to files and directories located under Program Files.
  2. Open either the CMD Shell or PowerShell command prompt.

  3. Build the sample from the command line as follows:

    • Build a makefile by typing nmake.

    • Build a .csproj file by typing msbuild mysample.csproj.

    • Build a .vbproj file by typing msbuild mysample.vbproj.

    • Build a .vcproj by typing vcbuild mysample.vcproj.

4.5.1 Building .NET Framework Samples

Samples demonstrating .NET Framework 3.0 can be found individually in the SDK documentation. Each sample has its own description page. From each sample page, you can view the source files for those samples as well as individually download all the files of that sample to a chosen location. The .NET Framework 3.0 samples can be accessed in bulk by directly opening the sample .zip files located in %MSSDK%\Samples.

4.5.2 Sample Dependencies

Some samples included with the Windows SDK have dependencies on components outside of the Windows SDK.

The following samples require the ATL and/or MFC headers, libraries or runtime included with Visual C++ (non-express editions):

  • com\administration\explore.vc
  • Multimedia\Audio\AECMicArray
  • Multimedia\GDI\ICM\DeviceModelPlugin
  • Multimedia\GDI\ICM\GamutMapModelPlugin
  • multimedia\WIA\getimage
  • multimedia\WindowsMediaFormat\AudioPlayer
  • multimedia\WindowsMediaFormat\DirectShowInterop\DSCopy
  • multimedia\WindowsMediaFormat\DirectShowInterop\DSPlay
  • multimedia\WindowsMediaFormat\DirectShowInterop\DSSeekFm
  • multimedia\WindowsMediaFormat\MetadataEdit
  • multimedia\WindowsMediaFormat\UncompAVIToWMV
  • multimedia\WindowsMediaFormat\WMProp
  • multimedia\WindowsMediaFormat\WMStats
  • multimedia\WindowsMediaFormat\WMSyncReader
  • multimedia\WindowsMediaFormat\WMVAppend
  • multimedia\WindowsMediaFormat\WMVCopy
  • multimedia\WindowsMediaFormat\WMVNetWrite
  • multimedia\WindowsMediaFormat\WMVRecompress
  • Multimedia\WindowsMediaServices9\Authentication
  • Multimedia\WindowsMediaServices9\Authorization
  • Multimedia\WindowsMediaServices9\CacheProxy\cplusplus
  • Multimedia\WindowsMediaServices9\DataSource
  • Multimedia\WindowsMediaServices9\EventNotification
  • Multimedia\WindowsMediaServices9\Playlist
  • Multimedia\WMP_11\CPP\RemoteSkin
  • multimedia\WMP_11\cpp\WMPHost
  • multimedia\WMP_11\cpp\WMPML
  • Multimedia\Wpd\WpdApiSample
  • netds\adsi\activedir\PropSheetHost
  • netds\ADSI\General\ADQI
  • netds\ADSI\General\ADsError
  • netds\ADSI\General\ADSIDump
  • netds\MessageQueuing\C_Draw
  • netds\MessageQueuing\Imp_Draw
  • netds\MessageQueuing\MqApiTst
  • netds\MessageQueuing\mqf_Draw
  • NetDS\SyncCenter\SyncHandler
  • netds\wlan\AutoConfig
  • security\authorization\azman\AzMigrate
  • Security\CredentialProvider
  • Security\WindowsFirewall\EnumerateFirewallRules
  • Sysmgmt\Wmi\VC\AdvClient
  • Sysmgmt\Wmi\VC\EventConsumer
  • Web\iis\Components\Cpp\Intermediate
  • Web\iis\Components\Cpp\Simple
  • winbase\Cluster\Win2003\ClipBookServer\ClipBook ServerEx
  • winbase\Cluster\Win2003\FileShareSample\File Share SampleEx
  • winbase\imapi\imapi2sample
  • winbase\VSS\vshadow
  • winbase\VSS\vsssampleprovider
  • WinBase\WinSAT\InitiateAssessment\CPP
  • WinBase\WinSAT\QueryWinSAT\CPP
  • WinUI\Pictures\AcquisitionPlugin
  • WinUI\Pictures\PictureAcquisition
  • WinUI\Printer\Ptpcmxdw
  • WinUI\shell\AppPlatform\TaskDialogs
  • WinUI\Shell\AppShellIntegration\PreviewHandler
  • WinUI\Shell\AppShellIntegration\PreviewHandler

The following samples require Windows Media Player 11 or later to be installed:

  • SchemaReader

The following samples require the MMC 3.0 or later to be installed:

  • MMC 3.0

The following samples require the DirectX SDK :

  • multimedia\direct3d\d3d9exsample

The following samples require Visual Studio to build:

  • TabletPCSetupSample

4.6 File System Layout

By default, the Windows SDK is installed to your hard disk in the locations described in the following table. This list is not complete, but covers the most common directories.

Directory

Contents

\Bin

Windows SDK tools

\Help

Windows SDK documentation

\Include

Windows SDK headers

\Lib

Import libraries and TLB files

\License

Windows SDK license information

\Samples

Windows SDK samples

5. Known Issues

This release of the Windows SDK has the following known issues. Known issues are categorized by type.

5.1 Setup and General Development

5.1.1 Running Change or Repair on Setup from Add/Remove Programs Fails

If the SDK was installed from a networked drive as a regular user, the Change or Repair functionality from the Maintenance screen in Add/Remove Programs will fail.

To work around this issue, re-launch setup.exe from the networked drive. This will launch the Maintenance screen, from which the installation can be changed or repaired.

5.1.2 Some files are not installed to the custom install path

If a custom install path is entered in setup, some header and library files will not be installed to the custom path. These files are instead installed to:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0a\

5.1.3 Some shared components are uninstalled by the Windows SDK

After uninstalling the Windows SDK, some files from:
Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft
are removed.

After uninstalling the Windows SDK, run Repair on any side-by-side installation of the Windows SDK or Visual Studio codename "Orcas"

5.2 Build Environment

5.2.1 Msbuild Reports a Dependency upon the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK 2.0

The Windows SDK does not set the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\.NETFramework\sdkInstallRootv2.0 registry key to a string value containing the root directory of the Windows SDK installation. However, some MSBuild tasks may expect this registry key to be set. If you already have the .NET Framework SDK 2.0 or Visual Studio 2005 set this key would be set and you should not encounter a problem.
However, if you install the Windows SDK without either the .NET Framework SDK or Visual Studio 2005, you may receive an error message from MSBuild tasks with a dependency on this key.

To work around this issue set the string value of this key to the root directory of the Windows SDK installation. By default, this is: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0
 
Additionally, in order to use AL.exe the ALToolPath parameter must be set and passed to msbuild. For the default install location, this can be done using the following command:
msbuild /p:ALToolPath="C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0\Bin"
 

5.3 Documentation

5.3.1 Link to "Windows Vista Samples" is Broken in the Docs

The link to the "Windows Vista Samples" is broken in the documents at Getting Started -> Welcome to the Windows SDK -> Samples and Tutorials.   Win32 samples install by default to your hard drive at Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Samples.

To access documentation about the Win32 samples please go to MSDN Online http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms716697.aspx.

5.4 SDK Tools

5.4.1 Some tools are not included with the Windows SDK

The following tools are no longer included with the Windows SDK:

5.4.2 Some tools require a newer version of the .NET Framework

The following tools need a version of the .NET Framework newer than the one that ships with the Windows SDK:

5.4.3 Multiple copies of WpfPerf.exe on your system will cause WpfPerf to crash

Having multiple copies of WpfPerf.exe on your system will cause WpfPerf to crash during startup.

To work around this issue, remove any copies of WpfPerf.exe from your system before installing WpfPerf.msi.

5.5 Samples

5.5.1 One NetDs\PeerToPeer Sample Needs To Be Run From A Non-Elevated Window

The \NetDs\PeerToPeer\Collaboration sample should be executed in a non-elevated window.

5.5.2 Optimization not supported when targeting ia64 /Release

When targeting ia64, building with full optimization for /Release does not work and you will receive an error: sched.dll is missing. You should not use the /Ox compiler switch in this scenario. To build for /Release, add the /Od switch to disable optimization. Building for ia64 /Debug is not an issue.

5.5.3 Samples that require DirectX SDK may not run even with the DirectX SDK installed

Some samples (including Multimedia\Direct3D\D3D9ExSample\Cpp) that require DirectX SDK may not run even when the DirectX SDK is installed because DX SDK inc and lib path are not set in the SDK build environment. To get these samples to build you must change the path in the SDK build environment. Add to the bottom of the PATH: $(DXSDK_DIR)\Include and $(DXSDK_DIR)\Lib\[X86 | X64]

5.5.4 Windows Media Player plug-in wizard is in two locations

There are two versions of the Windows Media Player plug-in wizard in the Windows SDK for Longhorn Server Beta 3. The most recent version is at %Windows SDK root directory%\Samples\Multimedia\WMP_11\wizards. An older versions is at %Windows SDK root directory%\Samples\Multimedia\WMP_11\wizards\VSNET.

 To install the most recent plug-in wizard in Visual Studio, open wmpwiz.vsz and change the value of ABSOLUTE_PATH to %Windows SDK root directory%\Samples\Multimedia\WMP_11\wizards.
  Example:
Param="ABSOLUTE_PATH = C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0\Samples\multimedia\WMP_11\wizards"

6. Windows SDK Product Support

The Windows SDK is provided "as-is" and is not supported by Microsoft. For technical support, there are a number of options:

6.1 Professional Support for Developers

Microsoft Professional Support for Developers provides incident-based access to Microsoft support professionals and rich information services to help developers to create and enhance their software solutions with Microsoft products and technologies.

For more information about Professional Support for Developers, or to purchase Professional Support incidents, please contact a Customer Representative at 1-800-936-3500. To access Professional Support for Developers, visit the MSDN web site. If you have already purchased support incidents, and would like to speak directly with a Microsoft support professional, call 1-800-936-5800.

6.2 MSDN Online 

MSDN online support allows access to Developer Support search, support incident submission, technical and product information, support highlights, service packs, downloads, webcasts, and MSDN Online's member communities.

6.3 Public Newsgroups, Forums and Blogs

The MSDN Forums are available for peer-to-peer support. The Windows SDK Forum deals with topics related specifically to the Windows SDK. The Software Development for Windows Vista forum contains an updated list of related forums.

The Windows SDK team also maintains the Windows SDK Blog which contains late-breaking and forward-looking news.

7. Feedback

Your feedback is important to us. Your participation and feedback through the Windows Vista Forums is appreciated.

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