[Update 2010-08-01: The beta version of the phone tools comes with an offline installer ISO image (WPDTBeta_en.iso), so you no longer need these steps.]

[Update 2010-05-05: I originally wrote this for the CTP that worked with VS2010 RC. Now that an updated set of tools has been released to work with VS2010 RTM, the folder name has changed. It is now called 30319.31 as far as I can tell. That is likely to change again for future releases, so just be aware of that. The steps should still work.]

If you have several machines that you want to install the Windows Phone 7 Series developer tools on and don’t want to have to wait for the download on each machine, here’s a little tip for how you can make yourself an “offline” installer:

1. Start with a clean Win 7 machine.

2. Download the web installer (vm_web.exe) from Microsoft and save it to a folder of your choice (let’s say C:\WinPhone7). Start the install.

3. Let the download happen, but when the install itself starts, temporarily cancel it (you can let it finish after step 5).

4. Go to %Temp% using Windows Explorer.

5. Copy the folder 30128.39 to your folder of choice from step 2.

6. Create a Install_WP7_Tools.cmd file containing the following:

xcopy 30128.39 %temp%\30128.39 /I /E
vm_web.exe
pause

7. Copy the folder of choice to a USB storage device.

8. Use the Install_WP7_Tools.cmd file on your other systems. The tools should install and skip most of the downloads quickly.

If you don’t start with a clean Windows 7 machine, the files that the vm_web.exe tool collects in the 30128.39 folder may not contain all the files needed for the install, so you may see a few things extra get downloaded while using the .cmd file on other machines.

On my clean 64-bit Windows 7 machine, I got the following files as part of the toolset:

C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\Ixpvm.exe
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\dotnetframework\dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\help\HelpSetup_x64.exe
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\mtpack\NetFx_DTP.cab
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\mtpack\NetFx_DTP.msi
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\rdbg\vs_expbsln_x64_enu.cab
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\rdbg\vs_expbsln_x64_enu.msi
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\silverlight4\Silverlight.4.0_Developer.exe
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\silverlight4\Silverlight4_Tools.exe
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\silverlight4\silverlight_sdk.exe
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\vcruntimes\x64\vc_runtime_x64.cab
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\vcruntimes\x64\vc_runtime_x64.msi
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\watson\dw20shared.msi
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\windowsphone\sde_xde64-enu.cab
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\windowsphone\sde_xde64-enu.msi
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\windowsphone\vs_sdeprolightup-enu.cab
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\windowsphone\vs_sdeprolightup-enu.msi
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\windowsphone\WindowsPhoneDeveloperResources.msi
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\windowsphone\WindowsPhoneExtensions.msi
C:\WinPhone7\30128.39\1033\VM_EXP\wcu\windowsphone\XNAGS40_setup.exe

A total of about 320 MB.