The Story

Stop the click-through. Create cutting-edge, visually stunning Web sites and applications that engage your users, make them stop in their tracks, and play along. Develop rich and immersive opportunities for users to participate in your creation, all using a comprehensive set of products that work together to execute and deliver your most creative ideas.

The Story

Intrigued yet?

To sort out why you should bother learning more, click around the Inspiration section to see how people are using these tools and technologies to push the Web to the next level:

Silverlight™ is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on Mac OS or Windows.

ASP.NET provides extensive web functionality, which can be implemented using a number of computer languages via the Common Language Runtime. Although ASP.NET could potentially be developed in a simple editor such as Notepad, the real effectiveness of using ASP.NET comes through the use of Visual Studio®.

Visual Studio® is the premiere integrated development environment for designing, developing, and testing next-generation applications and services. By improving the developer experience for the latest platforms – Windows, Web, Devices, and Microsoft Office – Visual Studio 2008 helps individuals and organizations rapidly create and deliver complete, connected, and compelling software solutions.

Expression ® Studio is a suite of professional design tools for creative designers who need to translate their creative vision into a tangible reality:

  • Expression® Web: A design tool used to create modern, high quality, and standards-based sites.
  • Expression Design™: An illustration and graphic design tool that lets you build compelling elements for both Web and desktop application user interfaces.
  • Expression Blend™: A design tool that harnesses the power of XAML, .NET, and Silverlight to create compelling user experiences for both the connected desktop and the web.
  • Expression® Media: An asset management tool to visually catalog and organize all your digital assets for effortless retrieval and presentation.
  • Expression Encoder™: A professional video encoder tool that offers enhancement, encoding, and publishing of rich video experiences.

Windows Live™ Platform gives a deeper level of control by offering access to core services and data through open, easily accessible APIs. Now you can build applications and mashups (Web apps that combine multiple services within a single, easy-to-use interface) that unite your innovation with the power of Windows Live Services. Microsoft is providing APIs for core Live services - such as Windows Live Contacts, Windows Live Messenger, Live ID, Search, and Virtual Earth - so that you can access and use these services in the applications you create.

Microsoft Web Platform Installer offers a single installer provides the software you need to build and run a complete Web solution on the Microsoft Web platform.

Here's how:

  • Developers have the firepower to create the kinds of visually rich applications online that would have previously stalled out a Web browser and were thereby limited to the desktop.
  • Designers can incorporate processor-heavy motion graphics and high-end video to their hearts’ content—and know that there’s an efficient delivery method (in the form of the Silverlight plug-in) that can handle it.
  • Thanks to the way that XAML dynamically compiles content, developers and designers can now work in tandem, rather than having to take their respective turns as a project comes together.
  • No one has to completely throw out the usual ways of doing things to take advantage of what these new tools have to offer—they're designed to easily integrate with the products everyone knows and loves.

Additional Resources