Starter Kits are a nice idea - but in reality they are a huge waste of time

I am the CTO of a large Microsoft-centric tech consulting service. I have spent considerable time over the past month studying and trying out this new starter kit technology. While I must say these starter kits are a great idea, the reality is that they are so poorly supported as to make them worse than useless - they are a waste of time and energy.

My take is that they can't be easily installed correctly, as I have attempted installs of each starter kit on various systems, local and remote, and nothing runs. I have wasted hours on these forums, finding an incredible number of similar postings that mirror my own experiences, but none contain viable answers. Most have no responses.

I have searched widely for docs. Forget it. Microsoft has truly dropped the ball on this one. My conclusion: don't waste your time. If anybody is using these starter kits successfully, I tip my hat, because I have found no other person who can claim to have installed, and run these starter kits successfully.

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Starter Kits are a nice idea - but in reality they are a huge waste of time

Dmitry Medvedev
Sorry but i'm fourteen and the only way i'm learning VB is by adapting starter kits to work how i want them to, coppying code ect.

so true when starting very good helper but as a good programer they are a wast of time
Adaoud
Hi Jim,

Sorry to hear that you've been having issues uploading to a hosted server. I'd like to know what type of issues you are seeing and will try to find a solution for you.

Jeff
Program Manager
Microsoft
shade_rigal
I did the personal starter kit and the "extension" project in vb.net by bill evjen. It ran "ok" on my home computer and I got a hosting account at discountasp.net (with sql 2005). I copied the files over and it would not run. I see the recommended connection string on their site but i have no idea hoe to enter it on my web.config file. If you could help I would be in your debt.
maakus

I installed and ran the Amazon Movie Starter Kit with no problem. I also use the Starter Kit provided by DotNetNuke. Have you checked that your ID-10-T driver is configured correctly
Artur laksberg
I agree completely with you!!!!!!
Dave M.
I think the important thing about starter kits is that they give a good introduction to a new framework. For instance, the XNA starter kits are great for learning the XNA framework; Adventureworks provides excellent suggestions for using SQL 2005 to its fullest. All of the starter kits are just that, a way for someone to get a quick grasp of the features of a new (to them) platform.
Dan-psg

Sorry but i'm fourteen and the only way i'm learning VB is by adapting starter kits to work how i want them to, coppying code ect.
mehmetceliko
I have spent hours trying to upload my personal website on a hosted server. no such luck.
Rob Hall

Hi, first of all let me apologise for the inconvenience you faced in looking for documentation related to starter kits. We do in fact have documentation on the end to end process for creating and using starter kits. You can find them here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/default.aspx pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/CreatStrtKt.asp

I would love to get your feedback on improving these documents so please let us know what you think.

In the meantime we're also looking into why these documents are so hard to find using a regular search.

Please don't hesitate to let us know if you need any other assistance regarding starter kits.

Thank you,

Prasadi

billreynolds

Chris584426 wrote:

Starter Kits are a nice idea - but in reality they are a huge waste of time

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whisnart wrote:

Sorry but i'm fourteen and the only way i'm learning VB is by adapting starter kits to work how i want them to, coppying code ect.

so true when starting very good helper but as a good programer they are a wast of time

I can see that but for hobbyists like myself they are a very useful resorce...