The first mystery, once you have purchased or decided to evaulate the product, is to determine which of several files you need to download. For me, all I needed was the "IDE Tools" download. I noted that there was a beta version to match up with Visual Studio 2010 RC, so I also downloaded that one.
Wanting to get on with my constant struggle to maintain a precariously balanced position on the bleeding edge, I started with the 2010 version. Unfortunately, I immediately hit the following roadblock:
Idetools-10 MS Document Explorer hasn't been found on this machine. Installation of the help will be skipped.
Now, "skipping help" is not normally my first choice when I am trying to learn something new, so I decided to solve the problem inline. A quick web search convinced me that this message had a couple of million causes, and that the cause of my getting it was (perpetually) going to be on the next page of results... Eventually I found a post that stated that Visual Studio 2010 has an entirely new help system, and no longer uses the Microsoft Document Explorer.
The quick fix, which I found on my own, was to install only that component from Video Studio 2008. Here is my recipe for that:
Mount your Visual Studio 2008 Installation media and open or explore (rather than auto-play) the media. Navigate to "WCU\DExplore". Right-Click on "DExplore.exe" and select "Run as Administrator." After that installation is complete, install the IDETools product.
After the installation was complete, I brought up Visual Studio 2010 product and confirmed that I had a bunch of new glyphs showing up in my code window. Great! Now what?
Well, there was a new "DevExpress" menu, and a "Training Videos..." submenu that took me to a collection of training videos on the DevExpress web site. The only beef I have with this offering is that it is haphazard - there is no "Getting Started with CodeRush with RefactorPro" video series - and there should be. That said, the videos there are useful.
But, don't start there, start Here. David O’Hara has a video that begins to fill this need. But I have to say, I never really found that a soup to nuts "getting started" video series, so I ended up back on the DevExpress Features page reading text. That's so 20th century!
UPDATE
I found a sweet spot to get videos:
Refactoring
Searching for "CodeRush", on the other hand, gets you a more random group of videos. I still think they are missing the boat by not having a "Getting Started" series.
