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The Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) 2.0 enables developers to create applications that support gesture and voice recognition, using Kinect sensor technology on computers running Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Embedded Standard 8, and Windows Embedded Standard 8.1.

This release introduces support for the Kinect for Windows v2 sensor, and introduces a broad range of capabilities for developers.


Learn more about the Kinect for Windows SDK 2.0 Public Preview

View Release Notes >

Explore the features >

The Kinect for Windows SDK 2.0 Public Preview includes the following:

• Drivers for using Kinect for Windows sensors on a computer running Windows 8 (x64), Windows 8.1 (x64), Windows Embedded Standard 8 (x64), and Windows Embedded Standard 8.1 (x64)
• Application programming interfaces (APIs) and device interfaces
• Code samples

Files

Status: Deleted This download is no longer available on microsoft.com. The downloads below are archives provided by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine from the Microsoft Download Center prior to July 2014.

• Hardware Requirements


Your computer must have the following minimum capabilities:
• 64-bit (x64) processor
• Dual-core 3.1-GHz or faster processor
• Dedicated USB 3.0 bus
• 2 GB RAM
• A Microsoft Kinect for Windows v2 sensor



• Software requirements
• Visual Studio 2012, or Visual Studio 2013. The free Express editions can be downloaded from Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Express or Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Express.
• .NET Framwork 4.5 (installed with Visual Studio 2012 or Visual Studio 2013)
• To develop speech-enabled Kinect for Windows Applications, you must install the Microsoft Speech Platform SDK v11
• Unity Pro Developers can download the Kinect for Windows SDK 2.0 Unity Pro Add-in to use Kinect APIs from within Unity.

To install the SDK:

1. Make sure the Kinect sensor is not plugged into any of the USB ports on the computer.
2. Remove any other drivers for the Kinect sensor.
3. Close Visual Studio. You must close Visual Studio before installing the SDK and then restart it after installation to pick up environment variables that the SDK requires.
4. From the download location, double-click on KinectSDK-v2.0-PublicPreview1407-Setup.exe. This single installer works for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.
5. 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.
6. The Kinect sensor should now be working correctly.
7. Run the SDK Browser, which contains source code samples, tools, and other valuable development resources that simplify developing Kinect for Windows applications.