0.1 Xna0100-getting started  (Page 2/3)

As you can see from the installation instructions, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is required. This has been a big part of the student's problems in downloading and installing the software in previoussemesters.

However, a different page indicates that Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express Edition will suffice in place of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 . That page reads as follows:

XNA Game Studio 4.0 Refresh works with any of the following Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 products.

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
• Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express Edition
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional Edition

I will have more to say about this later.

Cleaning off the old software

I began by using the software removal procedures in the Control Panel to remove three different Microsoft XNA items and one item titled Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express - ENU. At that point, my computer had no XNA capability and no Visual C# capability.

Downloading Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express Edition

A big part of the student's problems in previous semesters has been the difficulty of finding and downloading Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express Edition . The only way that I have found to download it is by clicking the following link: Visual Studio 2010 Express All-in-One ISO and saving the file named VS2010Express1.iso that is downloaded.

This file not only contains Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express Edition , it also contains the express editions for several other languages as well. However, it is not an installable product at this point.

Preparing the ISO file for software installation

There is more than one way to install the software in the ISO file. You might benefit by doing some online research into how to installthe software in an ISO file. Here is how I did it with Windows 7:

1. Insert a blank DVD in the DVD burner. (A blank CD would probably also work but I didn't have one.)
2. Right-click on the ISO file.
3. Select Open With...
4. Select Windows Disk Image Burner
5. Follow the disk burning instructions.
6. Remove the DVD from the burner when complete and label it Visual Studio 2010 Express or something similar.

The resulting DVD contains an installable version of Visual Studio 2010 Express , which in turn contains Visual C# 2010 Express and some other programs as well.

Installing Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express Edition

Insert the DVD in the DVD reader and select Setup.hta . You should then be given a choice as to which of the express edition programs you want to install.

Select Visual C# and follow the installation instructions.

When the installation is complete, you should be able to see Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express if you open the Start menu and enter 2010 in the searchbox.

At this point, you can run the program, open the Help menu, and select Check for Updates to satisfy the second item under XNA installation instructions .

Downloading and installing XNA 4.0 Refresh

This is the easy part. Click here to visit a page where you can download the setup file named XNAGS40_setup.exe for Microsoft XNA Game Studio 4.0 Refresh . Download, save, double click the file, and follow instructions to install thesoftware.