Kinect for Windows SDK now available for download

The Kinect for Windows SDK enables developers to create applications that support gesture and voice recognition, using Kinect sensor technology on computers running Windows 7, Windows Embedded Standard 7, and Windows 8 Developer Preview (desktop applications only).

Get it from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/develop/overview.aspx

The “Kinect for Windows” sensor will become available at a later date, but for non-commercial development and testing, the Xbox 360 Kinect sensor can be used – see this blog post.

Although we encourage all developers to understand and take advantage of the additional features and updates available with the new Kinect for Windows hardware and accompanying software, those developers using our SDK and the Kinect for Xbox 360 hardware may continue to use these in their development activities if they wish.  However, non-commercial deployments using Kinect for Xbox 360 that were allowed using the beta SDK are not permitted with the newly released software. Non-commercial deployments using the new runtime and SDK will require the fully tested and supported Kinect for Windows hardware and software platform, just as commercial deployments do. Existing non-commercial deployments using our beta SDK may continue using the beta and the Kinect for Xbox 360 hardware; to accommodate this, we are extending the beta license for three more years, to June 16, 2016.

Make sure to keep an eye on the Kinect for Windows Blog.

And if you have been testing the Beta SDK, make sure to have a look at the installation instructions:

To install the SDK:

1. Make sure the Kinect sensor is not plugged into any of the USB ports on the computer.
2. If you installed a previous version of the Kinect for Windows SDK, you must uninstall it before proceeding.
3. Remove any other drivers for the Kinect sensor.
4. Uninstall any Microsoft Speech runtime components including both the x86 and x64 bit versions, plus the Kinect Language Pack.
5. Close Visual Studio. You must close Visual Studio before installing the SDK and then restart it after installation is complete to pick up environment variables that the SDK requires.
6. From the download location, double-click the installer. This single installer works for both 32bit and 64bit Windows.
7. Once the SDK has completed installing successfully, ensure the Kinect sensor is plugged into an external power source and then plug the Kinect sensor into the PC’s USB port. The drivers will load automatically.
8. The Kinect sensor should now be working correctly.
9. To develop speech-enabled Kinect applications, install the Microsoft Speech SDK.