I've come across a few situations where a development server for SharePoint does not have all the necessary components installed. Not all of the items I've listed below are required, it depends on what you're building (ie: if you aren't building workflows you don't need to install that component), but the point of this post is to provide a list that others can use if they don't know where to start or just want something to use as a sanity check for future projects.

The items below are usually installed by the customer or our infrastructure team prior to developers working on the server:

  • Windows Server
  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
  • Service Packs, Critical Updates, etc
  • Visual Studio Professional

Once the items above have been installed and configured, developers usually need to install what is necessary for them to build according to the project requirements. Developers who are new to SharePoint may not know what components they need so hopefully the items below will help them get the environment ready for some heavy development:

I'll be the first to say that this is not an official or definitive list of everything required to develop for SharePoint, it's just meant to give people a jumpstart to figure out what they will need if they're new to the environment.

If I have missed anything please feel free to comment so I can add it to the list!