Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch gives you a simpler and faster way to create high-quality business applications for the desktop and the cloud, regardless of your development skills. LightSwitch is a new addition to the Visual Studio family designed to simplify and shorten the development of typical forms-over-data business applications.

With the impending release on July 26th, I’ve received a ton of requests for more information. Here is a collection of links to resources to get you started:

Websites & Portals

LightSwitch 2011 Portal – Official product portal where you can download the current beta and get updates on the official launch.

LightSwitch Developer Center – With LightSwitch, building business apps has never been easier. Stay up to date and learn more about features and capabilities of LightSwitch.

Official LightSwitch team blog – Public voice of the team who created LightSwitch. You’ll hear the latest news here first.

LightSwitch Help Website – Forums, How To’s and FAQs driven by the community.

Tutorials & Training

What is LightSwitch? – See how Visual Studio LightSwitch can help you develop business applications that run on the desktop or the cloud quickly.

Hello World Tutorial – This blog post by Jason Zander walks you through creating your first LightSwitch application.

LightSwitch Videos on Channel 9 – A collection of recordings from near and far all about LightSwitch.

LightSwitch Training Kit – The Visual Studio LightSwitch Training Kit contains demos and labs to help you learn to use and extend LightSwitch.

LightSwitch Developer Forums – Questions and discussions around the Visual Studio LightSwitch release.

Exploring the LightSwitch Architecture – LightSwitch applications are built on a classic three-tier architecture, on top of existing .NET technologies and proven architectural design patterns. See how LightSwitch works under the covers.

Extending LightSwitch - Extensions can add new capabilities to Visual Studio LightSwitch. You can download popular extensions from the Visual Studio Gallery. See how you can build your own themes, shells, business types, controls, screen templates, and data sources.

Windows Azure is Microsoft’s cloud platform, and a lot of developers are excited to try it out. To help you try it out, we have started a program called “Windows Azure Pass.” You can register a Live ID for a Pass and receive 30 days of free cloud computing. Just enough time to dip your toes in the cloud and see how easy it really is. NO credit card required. Do this before your boss comes over and expects you to have answers about ‘this cloud thing.’

Just go to www.WindowsAzurePass.com, and enter the promo code DPCE01. Your Pass will be activated within a few days, and you can start deploying code all day long.

Once you get a pass you can attend a two day boot camp to learn more about Windows Azure, try some hands on labs on your own time, or join us online during office hours to get all of your questions answered.

What exactly do you get for free?

The Windows Azure platform 30 day pass includes the following resources :

Windows Azure

• 3 Small Compute Instances
• 3 GB of Storage
• 250,000 Storage Transactions

SQL Azure

• Two 1 GB Web Edition Database

AppFabric

• 100,000 Access Control Transactions
• 2 Bus Service Connections

Data Transfers

• 3 GB In
• 3 GB Out

This is a collection of links to resources for Visual Studio 2010 that I find myself always emailing to people when they ask for something.

Websites & Portals

Visual Studio Portal – Essential resources for users new to Visual Studio 2010.

MSDN Developer Portal – Resources for learning how to use Visual studio to create desktop, Web, Cloud, and phone applications.

Team Foundation Server – Essential resources on how to automate and streamline the software delivery process for all team members.

Application Lifecycle Management – Guidance for managing the development process from design to deployment.

Training & Labs

Ramp Up – A free, online community-based learning program that will help you build professional development skills. Join ramp Up (it’s free!), click on a track, and help jump start your career.

Beginner Developer Learning Center – Find your path to success in a centralized learning environment that is specifically targeted to beginner programmers. The rich array of content starts with the very basics and guides you through each step of the process to become a full-fledged developer. When you’re ready, become a Champion and show off your project.

Visual Studio 2010 Training Kit – Presentations, hands-on labs, and demos designed to help you learn how to utilize the Visual Studio 2010 features and a variety of framework technologies.

How Do I Videos – Videos designed for Visual Studio 2010 developers from novice to professional. This set of short videos will help guide you through common scenarios, features, and functionalities.

MSDN Virtual Hands-On Labs – Quickly evaluate or learn how to build great applications for Windows and the Web through a series of FREE guided, hands-on labs which can be completed in 90 minutes or less.

Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server – This guide shows you how to make the most of TFS. It starts with the end in mind, but shows you how to incrementally adopt TFS within your organization.

Downloads & Samples

Visual Studio Downloads – Download a wide range of Visual Studio materials including frameworks, feature packs, service packs, templates, add-ins, and sample code.

Visual Studio Add-In Gallery – Quick access to tools, controls, and templates to help you get the most out of Visual Studio, You can browse, subscribe to feeds, and share your extensions with the Visual Studio development community.

Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework – A free centralized code sample library provided by the Microsoft Community team. Each sample is elaborately selected, composed, and documented to demonstrate one frequently-asked, tested, or used coding scenario. Sample code is provided in three popular programming languages (C#, VB.NET, C++).

Blogs

Active blogs by Visual Studio product team members and other affiliates:

• Brian Harry
• Brian Keller
• Buck Hodges
• Cameron Skinner
• Charles Sterling
• Ed Glass
• Grant Holliday
• Team System Rocks!