How to learn Silverlight–or any other MS technology

I get asked often how to learn Silverlight or Windows Phone 7 programming or many other MS technologies.

The best way to look up the Learning Plans on Learning.Microsoft.com.

For example, here’s the Silverlight Learning Plan. Once you sign-in into MSDN, you can start taking these lessons one by one. Many are free.

Learning Plan for Developing Microsoft Silverlight 4 Applications (Exam 70-506).

Table of Contents

This learning plan is intended to help developers gain the knowledge and skills required to develop Microsoft Silverlight 4 applications, and ultimately to prepare for Microsoft exam 70-506.
Some of the Microsoft resources for Silverlight 4 and for exam 70-560 are still under development. Consequently, candidates who want to prepare for exam 70-560 should use the Silverlight 3 resources included in this learning plan.

Recommended learning resources

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Step 1

Mark as
Complete

The Silverlight Development System

Published on: 6/1/2010, Learning Snack

Microsoft Expression Studio and Microsoft Visual Studio provide tools that designers and developers can use to create cost-effective Silverlight-based applications. This Learning Snack walks you through the tools' features, and explains how these tools help designers create attractive user interfaces and add rich content. It also describes how developers can create compelling interactivity around such user interfaces and content to produce a rich Web experience.

Step 2

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Complete

What's New in Silverlight 4

Published on: 9/28/2010, Article

This MSDN section introduces some of the new features and improvements in Microsoft Silverlight 4.

Step 3

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Complete

Getting Started with Silverlight development

Published on: 9/28/2010, Article

This eight-part blog series walks through the fundamentals of Microsoft Silverlight and helps you build a sample application along the way. Each step includes the source code as well as the C# and Visual Basic code for the completed application.

Step 4

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Complete

Getting Started with Silverlight Development

Published on: 9/28/2010, Article

This 16-minute video introduces the concepts and tools you need to get started with Microsoft Silverlight development from a developer’s perspective.

Step 5

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Complete

Course 50279A: Silverlight 3 Development

Published on: 1/22/2010, Classroom Training

This three day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to develop Microsoft Silverlight 3 applications through a variety of available development tools and techniques. It introduces the new features and concepts being introduced with the new version of the technology. The course focuses on user interfaces, program structure and implementation details.

Step 6

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Complete

Silverlight 4 Training

Published on: 9/28/2010, Article

The downloadable Microsoft Silverlight 4 training course includes a whitepaper and hands-on labs that explain the new Silverlight 4 features and an eight unit course for building business applications with Silverlight 4. The course includes eight modules with extensive hands on labs as well as 25 accompanying videos that walk you through key aspects of building a business application with Silverlight. Key topics in the course include how to work with numerous sandboxed and elevated out-of-browser features, the new RichTextBox control, implicit styling, webcam, drag and drop, multi touch, validation, authentication, MEF, WCF RIA Services, right mouse click, and more.

Step 7

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Complete

Videos: Silverlight 4

Published on: 9/28/2010, Article

This series of How Do I videos cover the top Microsoft Silverlight 4 features by using available source sample code in C# and Visual Basic.

Step 8

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Complete

Silverlight 4 Hands On Labs

Published on: 9/28/2010, Article

These hands-on labs demonstrate how to use Microsoft Silverlight tools and features.

Step 9

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Complete

Microsoft Silverlight 4 Offline Documentation

Published on: 9/28/2010, Article

This downloadable package contains the MSDN developer documentation for Microsoft Silverlight 4.

OR

Silverlight

Published on: 9/28/2010, Article

This MSDN library contains content on how to build applications with Microsoft Silverlight.

OR

Step 10

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Complete

Silverlight Overview - Technical Whitepaper

Published on: 9/28/2010, Article

This downloadable whitepaper covers the new features in Microsoft Silverlight 4, and offers learning materials and additional resources. Topics include the new business centric features, features for rich media experiences, Expression Blend and Visual Studio tooling enhancements, and new Out of Browser features.

Step 11

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Complete

Microsoft Silverlight 4 SDK

Published on: 9/28/2010, Article

The Microsoft Silverlight 4 SDK contains online documentation, online samples, libraries, and tools for developing Silverlight 4 applications.

Step 12

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Complete

Microsoft Silverlight 4 Tools for Visual Studio 2010

Published on: 9/28/2010, Article

This package is an add-on for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 to provide tooling for Microsoft Silverlight 4 and RIA Services. It can be installed on top of either Visual Studio 2010 or Visual Web Developer 2010 Express. It extends existing Silverlight 3 features and multitargeting capabilities in Visual Studio 2010 to create applications for Silverlight 4 by using C# or Visual Basic.

Step 13

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Complete

Preparation Guide for Exam 70-506: TS: Silverlight 4, Development

Published on: 9/28/2010, Article

Review this preparation guide to ensure that you are comfortable with all the topics and material covered in this exam. The prep guide details all the technical components covered in this exam.

Step 14

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Complete

Exam 70-506: TS: Silverlight 4, Development

Published on: 9/28/2010, Article

Register now to take exam 70-560.