The Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows 8 makes it easy for developers to create Windows Metro Style applications that can harness the power of Windows Azure. Today we released v1.2.0 on Codeplex and you can download the self-extracting package from here.  This version of the toolkit is a refresh that includes required updates for Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

If you are building Windows 8 Metro Style applications with Windows Azure and have not yet downloaded the toolkit I would encourage you to do so.  Why?, as a quick demonstration this video shows how you can use the toolkit to build a Windows 8 Metro Style application that uses Windows Azure and the Windows Push Notification Service to send Toast, Tile and Badge notifications in 4 minutes.

The core features of the toolkit include:

• Automated Install – Scripted install of all dependencies including Visual Studio 2010 Express and the Windows Azure SDK on Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
• Project Templates – Windows 8 Metro Style app project templates in Dev 11 in both XAML/C# and HTML5/JS with a supporting C# Windows Azure Project for Visual Studio 2010.
• NuGet Packages – Throughout the development of the project templates we have extracted the functionality into NuGet Packages for Push Notifications and the Sample ACS scenarios.  You can find the packages here and full source in the toolkit under /Libraries.
• Samples  – Five sample applications demonstrating different ways Windows 8 Metro Style apps can use ACS and Push Notifications
• Documentation – Extensive documentation including install, file new project walkthrough, samples and deployment to Windows Azure.

You can read more about the toolkit on the project site’s wiki where we have documentation that will help you get started using the toolkit step by step.  Additionally, I will be writing more detailed technical posts about the toolkit on my blog

Nick Harris is a Technical Evangelist for Windows Azure. Follow Nick at @cloudnick.