Getting Started This chapter will cover how to configure a development environment that is ready for both Silverlight and Windows Azure development. While this book assumes a basic knowledge of Silverlight, setting up a development environment to support the Azure development requires a few additional tools and Software Development Kits (SDKs) to be installed. It is possible to develop Windows Azure applications that are developed entirely on a developer's machine and are never deployed to the Windows Azure servers. To utilize Windows Azure, you will eventually need to deploy your application onto the Windows Azure servers. This chapter will cover how to create an Azure account and deploy directly to it with Visual Studio 2010. In this chapter, we will discuss the following topics: · · How to prepare a system for Azure and Silverlight developments Useful tools to assist with the development