Try It!

Want to try building a Windows Communication Foundation service? We make it easy for you!

Check Out the Labs

We've set up a couple of labs that work with the February CTP. Use them to find your way around everything you can do with WCF.

The Fundamentals of Programming the Windows Communication Foundation, the first lab, walks you through building a service, building a client, changing how the service is hosted, and securing how the client and service communicate.

The second lab, Reliable and Transacted Messaging with the Windows Communication Foundation, builds off that knowledge and shows you how to make your service more resilient and reliable when things go wrong.

For a richer experience, install the February CTP and download and walk through the labs on your own machine.
Lab 1: The Fundamentals of Programming the Windows Communication Foundation View Download
Lab 2: Reliable and Transacted Messaging with the Windows Communication Foundation View Download

Try the Labs on MSDN

We're hosting these labs on MSDN, so you don't even have to install WCF to start building services. Just log onto MSDN, and you'll get a Remote Desktop session onto a machine that's already got the labs set up. It's the easiest way to start experimenting with WCF.

Installing

The free downloads below are everything you need for a great experience building services, and we've even got an Installation Guide that puts it all together for you.
» The WinFX February Community Technology Preview
This CTP includes the latest builds of Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Presentation Foundation, and Windows Workflow Foundation.
» The January Windows Communication Foundation Go Live Release
The Go Live License on this release allows you to use it in your production code, so you can start taking advantage of WCF even before it ships! This release only includes WCF and is only for deployment--if you're developing, use the WinFX February CTP instead.
» The Windows Software Development Kit (SDK)
The SDK contains essential documentation, tools, and samples for the February WinFX CTP.
» Visual Studio Express
These lightweight editions of Visual Studio give you a streamlined developer environment.
» Visual Studio Extensions for WinFX
This extension pack offers the Visual Studio features you love with support for WCF, so you get IntelliSense on service code and XML configuration files, boilerplate templates, etc.