Earlier this month we released an updated version of the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit.  The September 2011 update of the training kit includes updated hands-on labs for the Windows Azure SDK/Tools version 1.5 (September 2011.)  The September update also includes a new hands-on lab for Service Bus Messaging, which demonstrates how to send and receive messages using the new Service Bus Message Queues and Topics that were just released.

• Download Now – You can download the full training kit including the hands-on labs, demo scripts, and presentations from the Microsoft download center here:  .
• Browse the hands-on labs – Alternatively, if you just wish to browse through the individual hands-on labs on the MSDN site here: 

New Training Kit Web Installer

Today we are also releasing a new installer for the training kit content, called the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit – Web Installer.  The new training kit web installer is a very small application weighing in at 2MB.  The web installer enables you to select and download just the hands-on labs, demos, and presentations that you want instead of downloading the entire training kit.  As new or updated hands-on labs, presentations, and demos are available they will automatically show up in the web installer – so you won’t have to download it again.  For example, here you can see I’ve selected one presentation and one hands-on lab to be downloaded and installed.

The new training kit web installer also provides a seamless install experience for most prerequisites or dependencies thanks to the Web Platform Installer.    If you select content that requires a prerequisite or dependency such as ASP.NET MVC or the Windows Azure SDK to be installed on your machine, the web installer will determine if your machine has the necessary components.  

If you don’t have the necessary dependencies installed, then you can simply click the INSTALL button and if the dependency is available through the Microsoft Web Platform Installer, then you will easily be able to install the dependency with just a couple clicks.   For example, here you can see that I don’t have the latest Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio installed, but I can easily install them through WebPI.  

You can now download the training kit web installer preview release from here. 

We hope you like this new installation experience for content.   This is the first preview release of the new training kit web installer.  Over the coming weeks we will be making some enhancements to the experience and we will start to use web installer for other training kits.  Please let us know if you have any feedback on new web installer or the content. Earlier this month we released an updated version of the Windows Azure Platform Training Kit.  The September 2011 update of the training kit includes updated hands-on labs for the Windows Azure SDK/Tools version 1.5 (September 2011).   The September update also includes a new hands-on lab for Service Bus Messaging, which demonstrates how to send and receive messages using the new Service Bus Message Queues and Topics that were just released.