The first preview of Microsoft's developer tools for Windows Vista and WinFX are available for download. The preview contains a visual designer for the Windows Presentation Framework (WPF), as well as project templates for applications that are designed to use the WPF and the Windows Communication Framework (WCF). The tools will eventually be part of the next release of Visual Studio, code-named Orcas, but the preview release is an add-on to Visual Studio 2005.

The WPF tools are known by the code name Cider and will help developers edit XAML—the XML-based markup language used to describe the appearance of a WPF application. Cider provides a "source view" of XAML, which allows developers to edit XAML as text, as well as a "design view," a basic set of tools to visually lay out a XAML application.

The Cider download is at www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D1336F3E-E677-426B-925C-C84A54654414&displaylang=en.

For more information on Vista, WPF, and XAML, see "New Graphics Framework Built Around .NET, XML" in the Dec. 2005 Research Report, "A First Look at Windows Vista."