To develop Silverlight applications for Windows Phone 7, you can use Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition, and the developer tools available for download from Microsoft. The main tool set is the Windows Phone Developer Tools, which includes specially adapted versions of Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition and Expression Blend® design software 4.0 (for developing the UI), integration components and templates for Visual Studio 2010 (which you can use instead of installing Visual Studio 2010 Express Edition), Silverlight tools, run-time debugging support, and an emulator for Windows Phone 7. You can obtain the Windows Phone Developer from the Windows Phone and Xbox 360® App Hub at http://create.msdn.com/en-us/home/getting_started.
Note: You will also need to install the Windows Phone Developer Tools October 2010 Update from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=49B9D0C5-6597-4313-912A-F0CCA9C7D277&displaylang=en.
For a simple walkthrough that shows how you can get started building Silverlight applications, see “How to: Create Your First Silverlight Application for Windows Phone” on MSDN (http://msdn. microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402526(VS.92).aspx). A series of videos that describe development of Windows Phone 7 applications, for
both Silverlight and XNA, is available from “Windows Phone 7 Jump Start Training” on the Windows Phone Developer Blog (http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2010/08/17/windows-phone-7-jump-start-training.aspx).
For information and guidelines about the style recommended for Silverlight applications, see Windows Phone UI Design and Interaction Guide (a PDF document) available from the Microsoft Download Center (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713252).
Appendix A of this guide, “Tools, Frameworks, and Processes,” also contains information to help you get started developing Silverlight applications for Windows Phone 7.