#3 – Tools for Developing WPF Applications

The only tool that you’ll need for developing WPF (version 4) applications is Visual Studio 2010.  You can download Visual Studio 2010 Express for free.  (For a single development language).

To develop applications in other languages and for other platforms (e.g. 64-bit), or to take advantage of other advanced features, you’ll want a paid version of Visual Studio 2010.

To get more advanced functionality for designing user interfaces, you’ll also want Expression Blend 4.