Installing SharePoint Designer 2010 Beta

SharePoint Designer is an invaluable tool for site administrators and developers within SharePoint. After the Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas, and seeing all of the great things that Microsoft has done to improve this tool from its humble beginnings back when it was FrontPage. So, naturally that I now have full-on access to the 2010 Beta, I am anxious to start playing around with SharePoint Designer 2010 first hand.

The first step in this process of course, is to get it installed. To do so, I am starting from the first site I have created in my new environment.

Going to the Site Actions menu (it’s moved by the way, over to the left side of the page from 2007), I select Edit Site in SharePoint Designer

Since I do not already have Designer 2010 installed, a dialog window pops up, basically letting me know that I do not have it installed, and I can do so. Just like SharePoint Designer 2007, SharePoint Designer 2010 will be free for all users. And since the Beta is all that is around now, that’s what it will install for me.

I select the language I am looking to install SharePoint Designer in (English, German, Spanish, Japanese, French, Russian, and Chinese are other available languages that can be selected, in addition to English, as shown above), and choose my platform. Even though SharePoint 2010 is only 64-bit, SharePoint Designer 2010 is available in both 32 and 64 bit, as it is intended to be run from the desktop, and many of us still run 32 bit desktops, as we probably will for a long time to come.

Once done, selecting the Download button goes out and fetches the right download, and prompts me to run and/or save it.

It’s sizeable for my options as chosen (English 64-bit) at 277MB, happy that I have a nice and fast connection.

Once it’s up and running, the installer will extract the files, and then move on.

You have the usual EULA, agree and continue

Once accepted, you really cannot miss what is needed on the next screen. Microsoft made sure of that.

However, you can customize your installation by clicking on the Customize button, setting a new installation directory, setting your user information, and adding or removing features from the install. With the default installation, its a fairly hefty installation at 1.03G, but, I have a feeling it will be well worth it…

The installation begins (of course after you have clicked the Install Now button.

And that’s it. You’re done!