Question

Has anyone tried to install the new Windows Phone 7 tools? Mainly, I would like to know if it allows Visual Studio 2010 to open Smart Device projects from older versions of Visual Studio.

Answer 1

Smart device projects from earlier versions (e.g. WIndows Mobile 6.X) are not supported in Visual Studio 2010.

There are no plans to add this support to VS2010. You’ll have to keep using VS2008 for such projects.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sa69he4t.aspx states that:

Visual Studio 2010 does not support
mobile application development for
versions of Windows Phone prior to
Windows Phone OS 7.0.

For Visual Studio 2008 mobile
developers, Microsoft released the
Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit,
which works with the Windows Mobile 6
SDK.

Because Visual Studio 2010 does not
support mobile application development
for Windows Phone prior to Windows
Phone OS 7.0, you cannot use the
following features: .NET Compact
Framework projects, Visual C++ device
projects, smart device CAB projects,
Device Emulator and Device Emulator
Manager, testing tools for device
projects, and Device Security Manager.

Mobile application development is
still supported in earlier versions of
Visual Studio, such as Visual Studio
2008. For more information about smart device projects, see Windows Mobile
Developer Center and Smart Device
Development in Visual Studio 2008.