I started playing with the VB.net functionality associated with Windows Phone 7 months ago. As it was, it worked pretty well and I’ve definitely been able to move forward with a few side projects.

But, one thing that always bothered me was Expression Blend’s lack of support for VB projects. If I wanted to open a XAML file in Blend, I had to construct this complex project arrangement where I shared the XAML file between a VB and C# project and then opened it through the C# project. It worked, but it wasn’t particularly pretty.

My how things have changed!

First, be sure and grab the Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1.

Then, download and install the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Beta 2.

Note that the Beta 2 install takes forever to install. I swear, I think they copy your entire harddrive to the cloud, reformat your drive and then copy it all back down.

But, once it’s done, open up a VB.net phone project, right click on a XAML file in the solution explorer and select “Open with Blend”.

Life is good!

Now if we could just get the ListPicker fixed.