Windows 8 ‘Camp In A Box’

For the last few months Microsoft has been running Windows 8 free developer events around the world (Dev Camps) called 'Windows 8 Camps'. They are still going on so do check the ongoing schedule on the Microsoft site.

If you've been along to one of them you'll have picked up a lot of information about Windows 8, its capabilities and how you take advantage of them in code. The hands-on labs from the Windows 8 Camp have been made available to anyone interested, but until recently the resources were still specific to pre-release versions.

As of a couple of days back the Windows 8 Camp In A Box is now available updated to the RTM version of Windows 8. You can either pull down a version for C# and XAML, or a version for JavaScript and HTML. Both are available at this download link and both come in at approximately 143MB.

This is definitely worth pulling down. It's an entirely self-contained training lab that takes you through all the steps of building up a nice, functional Windows 8 app. Enjoy!

[ UPDATE: this Camp-in-a-Box runs through the development of a Windows 8 cookbook application called the Contoso Cookbook, along with application. The installable also adds in a variety of useful presentations and resources.

It seems there is also a cut down version of the same kit without the presentations and additional resources at this download link, where the downloads are a little over 60 MB.

Finally, there is a mass of pre-fabricated Windows 8 sample apps set up to run with the RTM version of Visual Studio 2012, which can be pulled down for either C++, C#, JavaScript or VB.NET. Those are available from this link. ]