Windows Phone 7 development: XnaMediaHelper_1.dll error

Hi folks,

When building an XNA Game Studio solution for Windows Phone 7 that includes any sort or media like audio or video files, you might have encountered the same problem I ran into:

error : Building content threw DllNotFoundException: Unable to load DLL 'XnaMediaHelper_1.dll': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)

Well XnaMediaHelper_1.dll is the default library to compile XNA media content. The problem is, that XnaMediaHelper_1.dll is referenced by the media importers which are added by default to the content folder. Hence, XnaMediaHelper_1.dll can not be referenced directly by your XNA project.

To solve this error you need to install the “Desktop Experience” feature which includes the required codecs from your Windows 7 installation disk. If you are running a Windows 7 N or Windows 7 KN version download and install the Media Feature Pack for Windows 7 N and Windows 7 KN (KB968211) to solve this problem.

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Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools for Visual Basic.NET CTP

Hi folks,

as stated in my earlier Blog post “Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools final version released”, Microsoft just released the Visual Basics CTP (Community Technology Preview = Beta version) for Windows Phone Developer Tools which you can download here.


To use the Visual Basics CTP for Windows Phone Developer Tools you need the Windows Phone Development Tools RTW (web installer or .iso image) as well as Visual Studio 2010 Professional or higher (90 day trial version). Furthermore you can only develop Silverlight apps using Visual Basics; XNA does not support Visual Basics as of now.

You can find the official release announcement on the Windows-Phone Blog. Additionally you can find some VB samples/tutorials for Windows Phone 7 on Jason Zanders Blog.

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Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools final version released

Hi folks,

Microsoft released the final version of the development tools for Windows Phone 7 last week. The tools are free and consist of the products:

• Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
• Expression Blend for Windows Phone
• XNA Game Studio for Windows Phone 7
• Silverlight 4 Tools for Visual Studio
• Windows Phone Emulator

You can download the web installer here; the .iso image can be found here. The tools will only intall on Windows Vista and Windows 7. Microsoft will open the Windows Phone Marketplace at the beginning of October.


The current release of the Windows Phone 7 development tools is only available in English but Microsoft promises the release of the French, Italian, German and Spanish language versions in the near future.

As of now the application business logic has to be written in C# for both Silverlight and XNA. Visual Basic.NET support was announced to be released later this year.

The improvements over the beta version include new templates for pivot and panorama, improved debugging functionalities as well as French, Italian, Spanish, German and English support for the Windows Phone Emulator.

You can find the official release announcement on the Windows-Phone Blog. Further information and tutorials can be found on Scott Guthries Blog.

In addition you can download the Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit, which provides you with additional controls, from CodePlex.

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Programming Windows Phone 7

Hello guys,

it should be quite interesting for all Windows Phone7 developers. The second draft preview of Charles Petzold’s upcoming Programming Windows Phone 7 ebook including several code examples is available to download :)

The final version of this ebook will be available in october and will be free!

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Windows Phone 7 Series Development Tools Beta

On the Mix 10 conference, Microsoft announced the beta version of the development tools for Windows Phone 7 Series, the new OS from Microsoft succeeding Windows Mobile.


Applications for Windows Phone 7 Series can be developed using an enhanced version of Silverlight 3 or XNA, a tool chain to develop Xbox games. The also announced Silverlight 4 RC does not support development for Windows Phone 7 Series as of yet.

You can download the free Windows Phone 7 Series development tools beta version:

• Expression Blend for Windows Phone for Silverlight development
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone (preview version)
• Windows Phone Emulator
• XNA Game Studio 4.0 CTP

Windows Mobile 6.x applications are not compatible with Windows Phone 7 Series. As of now there is no official statement from Microsoft if and how these applications can be ported.

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