Quote:

---

.NET Framework Developer's Guide
What's New in the .NET Framework 2.0 Beta

Collapse All Language Filter:
Visual Basic
C#
C++
J#
JScript
[This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases. Blank topics are included as placeholders.]

The .NET Framework version 2.0 Beta extends the .NET Framework version 1.1 with new features, improvements to existing features, and enhancements to the documentation. This section provides information about some key additions and modifications.

64-Bit Platform Support
The new generation of 64-bit computers enables the creation of applications that can run faster and take advantage of more memory than is available to 32-bit applications. New support for 64-bit applications enables users to build managed code libraries or easily use unmanaged code libraries on 64-bit computers.

Access Control List Support
An access control list (ACL) is used to grant or revoke permission to access a resource on a computer. New classes have been added to the .NET Framework that allow managed code to create and modify an ACL, and new members that utilize an ACL have been added to the I/O, registry, and threading classes.

ADO.NET
New features in ADO.NET include support for user-defined types (UDT); asynchronous database operations; XML data types; large value types; snapshot isolation; and new attributes that allow applications to support multiple active result sets (MARS) with SQL Server 2005. For more information about these and other new ADO.NET features, see What's New in ADO.NET.

ASP.NET
The Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Beta includes significant enhancements to all areas of ASP.NET. For Web page development, new controls make it easier to add commonly used functionality to dynamic Web pages. New data controls make it possible to display and edit data on an ASP.NET Web page without writing code. An improved code-behind model makes developing ASP.NET pages easier and more robust. Caching features include several new ways to cache pages, including the ability to build cache dependency on tables in a SQL Server database.

You can now customize Web sites and pages in a variety of ways. Profile properties enable ASP.NET to track property values for individual users automatically. Using Web Parts, you can create pages that users can customize themselves in the browser. You can automatically track page views and control clicks with site statistics, and you can add navigation menus using simple controls.

Improvements to Web site features allow you to create professional Web sites faster and more easily. Master pages allow you to create a consistent layout for all the pages in a site, and themes allow you to define a consistent look for controls and static text. To help protect your sites, you can precompile a Web site to produce executable code from source files (both code files and the markup in .aspx pages). You can then deploy the resulting output, which does not include any source information, to a production server. Enhancements to ASP.NET also include new tools and classes to make Web site management easier for Web site developers, server administrators, and hosters.

ASP.NET accommodates a wide variety of browsers and devices. By default, controls render output that is compatible with XHTML 1.1 standards. The new adaptive rendering architecture enables controls to automatically render the correct markup for a specific browser or device; you no longer need to use separate classes for mobile development. You can use device filtering to specify different property values on the same control for different browsers, and ASP.NET includes special controls specifically designed for creating pages that run on small-form browsers and mobile phones.

For a more complete list of new features in ASP.NET, see What's New in ASP.NET.

Authenticated Streams
Applications can use the new NegotiateStream and SslStream classes for authentication and to help secure information transmitted between a client and a server. These authenticated stream classes support mutual authentication, data encryption, and data signing. The NegotiateStream class uses the Negotiate security protocol for authentication. The SslStream class uses the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) security protocol for authentication.

COM Interop Services Enhancements
Four major enhancements have been made to the classes and tools that support interoperability with COM:

The operating system maintains a limited number of handles, which are used to reference critical operating system resources. The new SafeHandle and CriticalHandle classes, and their specialized derived classes, provide safe and reliable means of manipulating operating system handles.
Marshaling improvements make interoperating with native code easier. Two enhancements to the interop marshaler satisfy the two most common user requests: the ability to wrap native function pointers into delegates, and the ability to marshal fixed-size arrays of structures inside structures.
The performance of calls between applications in different application domains has been made much faster for common call types.
New switches on the Type Library Importer (Tlbimp.exe) and Type Library Exporter (Tlbexp.exe) tools eliminate dependency on the registry to resolve type library references. This enhancement is important for creating robust build environments.

Console Class Additions
New members of the Console class enable applications to manipulate the dimensions of the console window and screen buffer; to move a rectangular area of the screen buffer, which is useful for performing smooth, simple animation; and to wait while reading console input until a key is pressed. Other new class members control the foreground and background colors of text, the visibility and size of the cursor, and the frequency and duration of the console beep.

Data Protection API
The new Data Protection API (DPAPI) includes four methods that allow applications to encrypt passwords, keys, connections strings, and so on, without calling platform invoke. You can also encrypt blocks of memory on computers running Windows Server 2003 or later operating systems.

Debugger Display Attributes
Developers can now control how Visual Studio displays a class or member when an application is being debugged. The debugger's Display Attributes feature enables a developer to identify the most useful information to display in the debugger.

Debugger Edit and Continue Support
The .NET Framework 2.0 Beta reintroduces the Edit and Continue feature that enables a user who is debugging an application in Visual Studio to make changes to source code while executing in Break mode. After source code edits are applied, the user can resume code execution and observe the effect. Furthermore, the Edit and Continue feature is available in any programming language supported by Visual Studio.

Detecting Changes in Network Connectivity
The NetworkChange class allows applications to receive notification when the Internet Protocol (IP) address of a network interface, also known as a network card or adapter, changes. An interface address can change for a variety of reasons, such as a disconnected network cable, moving out of range of a wireless local area network, or hardware failure. The NetworkChange class provides address change notification by raising events when a change is detected.

Disjunctive Demands
In prior versions of the .NET Framework, you could not allow multiple code identities access to a class or method. For example, only one strong name could be demanded at a time, creating a problem in situations such as testing multiple strong-named assemblies from different sources. What was needed was a way to combine identity elements using a bitwise OR operation. In response to this need, new disjunctive security actions have been created that allow multiple identity permissions to be simultaneously demanded, inheritance-demanded, or link-demanded. In the case of strong-named assemblies, a developer using the DemandChoice security action can now demand several strong name identities, any of which will allow the stack walk to succeed. The three new security actions that allow disjunctive demands are DemandChoice, InheritanceDemandChoice, and LinkDemandChoice.

Distributed Computing
In the System.Net namespace, support has been added for FTP client requests, caching of HTTP resources, automatic proxy discovery, and obtaining network traffic and statistical information. The namespace now includes a Web server class (HttpWebListener Class) that you can use to create a simple Web server for responding to HTTP requests. Classes that generate network traffic have been instrumented to output trace information for application debugging and diagnostics. Security and performance enhancements have been added to the System.Net.Sockets.Socket and System.Uri classes.

In the System.Web.Services namespaces, support for SOAP 1.2 and nullable elements has been added.

In the System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels namespaces, channel security features have been added. The TCP channel now supports authentication and encryption, as well as several new features to better support load balancing.

EventLog Enhancements
Developers can now use custom DLLs for EventLog messages, parameters and categories.

Expanded Certificate Management
The .NET Framework now supports X.509 certificate stores, chains, and extensions. In addition, you can sign and verify XML using X.509 certificates without using platform invoke. There is also support for PKCS7 signature and encryption, and CMS (a superset of the PCKS7 standard available on Microsoft Windows 2000 and later operating systems). PKCS7 is the underlying format used in Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) for signing and encrypting data. For more information, see System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates.X509CertificateEx.

FTP Support
Applications can now access File Transfer Protocol (FTP) resources using the WebRequest, WebResponse, and WebClient classes.

Generics and Generic Collections
The .NET Framework 2.0 Beta introduces generics to allow users to create flexible, reusable code. Language features collectively known as "generics" act as templates that allow classes, structures, interfaces, methods, and delegates to be declared and defined with unspecified, or generic type parameters instead of specific types. Actual types are specified later when the generic is used. Several namespaces, such as System Namespace and System.Collections.Generic, provide generic classes and methods. The new System.Collections.Generic namespace provides support for strongly typed collections. System.Nullable<T> is a standard representation of optional values. Generics are supported in three languages: Visual Basic, C#, and C++.

Reflection has been extended to allow runtime examination and manipulation of generic types and methods. New members have been added to System.Type and System.Reflection.MethodInfo, including HasGenericParameters to detect identify generic types (for example, class Gen<T,U> {...}), GetGenericParameters to obtain type parameter lists, and BindGenericParameters to create specific types, for example, new Gen<int, long>().

Globalization
Five new globalization features provide greater support for developing applications intended for different languages and cultures.

Support for custom cultures enables developers to define and deploy culture-related information as needed. This feature is useful for creating minor customizations of existing culture definitions, and creating culture definitions that do not yet exist in the .NET Framework. For more information, see the T.System.Globalization.CultureAndRegionInfoBuilder class.

Encoding and decoding operations map a Unicode character to or from a stream of bytes that can be transferred to a physical medium, such as a disk or a communication line. If a mapping operation cannot be completed, developers can compensate by using the new encoding and decoding fallback feature supported by several classes in the System.Text namespace.

Users who require greater performance from the UTF8Encoding class, which implements UTF-8, the most common encoding used to transform Unicode characters into bytes on computers, will be pleased to know that members in this class are now several times faster than in previous releases.

The .NET Framework now supports the latest normalization standard defined by the Unicode Consortium. The normalization process converts character representations of text to a standard form so the representations can be compared for equivalence.

The GetCultureInfo method overload provides a cached version of a read-only CultureInfo object. Use the cached version when creating a new CultureInfo object, to improve system performance and reduce memory usage.

I/O Enhancements
Improvements have been made to the usability and functionality of various I/O classes. It is now easier for users to read and write text files and obtain information about a drive.

Developers can now use the classes in the System.IO.Compression namespace to read and write data with the GZIP compression and decompression standard, described in the IETF RFC 1951 and RFC 1952 specifications, available at http://www.ietf.org.

Manifest-Based Activation
This feature provides new support for loading and activating applications through the use of a manifest. Manifest-based activation is essential for supporting ClickOnce applications. Traditionally, applications are activated through a reference to an assembly that contains the application's entry point. Clicking on an application's .exe file from within the Windows shell, for example, causes the shell to load the common language runtime (CLR) and call a well-known entry point within that .exe file's assembly.

The manifest-based activation model uses an application manifest for activation rather than an assembly. A manifest fully describes the application, its dependencies, security requirements and so forth. The manifest model has several advantages over the assembly-based activation model, especially for Web applications. For example, the manifest contains the security requirements of the application, which enables the user to decide whether to allow the application to execute before downloading the code. The manifest also contains information about the application dependencies.

Manifest-based activation is provided by a set of APIs that allow 'managed hosts' to activate applications and add-ins described by a manifest. These APIs contain a mixture of both new classes and extensions to existing classes.

This activation model also invokes an entity called a Trust Manager whose role is to perform the following tasks:

.NET Framework Remoting
.NET Framework remoting now supports IPv6 addresses and the exchange of generic types. The classes in the System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Tcp namespace support authentication and encryption using the Security Support Provider Interface (SSPI). Classes in the new System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Ipc namespace allow applications on the same computer to communicate quickly without using the network. Finally, you can now configure the connection cache time-out and the number of method retries, which can improve the performance of network load-balanced remote clusters.

Obtaining Information about Local Computer Network Configuration and Usage
Using classes in the System.Net.NetworkInformation namespace, applications can access IP, IPv4, IPv6, TCP, and UDP network traffic statistics. Applications can also view address and configuration information for the local computer's network adapters. This information is similar to the information returned by the Ipconfig.exe command-line tool.

Ping
The Ping class allows an application to determine whether a remote computer is accessible over the network. This class provides functionality similar to the Ping.exe command-line tool, and supports synchronous and asynchronous calls.

Processing HTTP Requests from within Applications
You can use the HttpListener class, you can create a simple Web server that responds to HTTP requests. The Web server is active for the lifetime of the HttpListener object and runs within your application with your application's permissions. This class is available only on computers running the Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

Programmatic Control of Caching
Using the classes in the System.Net.Cache namespace, applications can control the caching of resources obtained using the WebRequest, WebResponse, and WebClient classes. You can use the predefined cache policies provided by the .NET Framework or specify a custom cache policy. You can specify a cache policy for each request, and define a default cache policy for requests that do not specify a cache policy.

Programming Languages
Four Microsoft programming languages explicitly target the .NET Framework. For more information about new and enhanced features in these languages, see the following topics:

What's New in C# 2.0

What's New in the Visual J# Language

What's New in the Microsoft C/C++ Language

What's New in the Visual Basic Language

Visual Basic Compiler and Language
Language improvements in Visual Basic simplify source code and enable interaction with components that use advanced features.

Compiler
Visual Basic introduces a new conditional compilation constant, VBC_VER, for all projects. This version has the value of VBC_VER 8.0.

The Visual Basic command-line compiler now stores the default command-line options in the Vbc.rsp file, in the same directory as the command-line compiler, Vbc.exe. You can edit Vbc.rsp to reconfigure the default command-line options.

There are four new command-line compiler options:

The /doc option generates an XML documentation file based on comments within your code.
The /noconfig option causes the compiler to ignore the Vbc.rsp file.
The /codepage option specifies which codepage to use when opening source files.
The /filealign option specifies the size of sections in your output file.
For more information, see Visual Basic Compiler Options.

Language
There are several new elements in this version of the Visual Basic language:

Continue Statement
Operator Statement
Using Statement
IsFalse Operator
IsNot Operator
IsTrue Operator
SByte Data Type
UInteger Data Type
ULong Data Type
UShort Data Type
Expands
Global
Of
Narrowing
Widening

Security Exceptions
The System.Security.SecurityException class has been expanded to provide additional data that facilitates investigation into the cause of security exceptions. New properties provide information that includes the method in which the exception occurred, the first permission that failed, the zone or URL of the assembly, the security action that failed, and the security action on the call stack, such as Deny or PermitOnly, that caused the exception.

Serial I/O Device Support
The new SerialPort class provides applications with the ability to access the serial ports on a computer, and to communicate with serial I/O devices.

Serialization
The BinaryFormatter class now supports version-tolerant serialization, which allows a type to be deserialized from the serialization of a different version.

XML serialization now supports the use of properties instead of fields to represent schema elements, the serialization of generic types, and the use of the Nullable!1 structure to represent nullable elements. The IXmlSerializable interface supports custom schema generation.

The new XML Serializer Generator (Sgen.exe) allows you to precompile the code used by Web services clients to serialize transmitted information, greatly improving the client startup time.

SMTP Support
Using the classes in the System.Net.Mail and System.Net.Mime namespaces, applications can send e-mail to one or more recipients. Mail can be sent with alternate views and can include attachments. Sending carbon copies and blind carbon copies is also supported.

Strongly-Typed Resource Support
The Resource File Generator (Resgen.exe) tool creates resource files that are embedded in executable files and satellite assemblies. The Resgen tool produces a wrapper class for each resource file, which gives the developer easy access to resources and prevents spelling mistakes in resource names.

Threading Improvements
Developers can now name cross-process communication events that are created purely in managed code. Also, the Semaphore class supports specialized resource counting.

Trace Data Filtering
The .NET Framework 2.0 Beta provides classes that trace and log system events related to I/O, application startup and shutdown, and so on. However, the enormous volume and diverse types of trace information make it difficult for users to analyze this data. New support for trace data filtering enables the user to specify the type of information to be logged.

Transactions
The new System.Transactions namespace contains classes that allow your applications to participate in transactions managed by the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC) or other transaction managers. You can use the TransactionScope class to create simple, transactional code blocks, or the ITransaction and IEnlistmentNotification interfaces to maintain participation through each phase of a multiple-phase distributed transaction. This transaction infrastructure can easily interoperate with the existing System.EnterpriseServices (COM+) transaction infrastructure. A new LightweightTransactionManager class provides a faster alternative to the DTC for simple transactions.

Web Services
Web services support SOAP 1.2 and the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0, which is documented at http://www.ws-i.org/Profiles/Basic/2003-08/BasicProfile-1.0a.html.

When consuming two or more Web services that define a shared type, the client proxies generated for those Web services share the corresponding type on the client. This allows clients to easily pass instances of shared types among Web services.

You can now invoke Web methods asynchronously using an event-based programming pattern.

Windows Forms-Related Features
ClickOnce Deployment
ClickOnce deployment allows you to deploy self-updating Windows applications that can be installed and run as easily as Web applications. You can deploy Windows client and command line applications. There are new Publish Project commands on the Build and Project menus in Visual Studio. For more information, see ClickOnce Deployment Overview.

Application Settings
Application settings for Windows Forms makes it easy to create, store, and maintain custom application and user preferences on the client. With Windows Forms settings, you can store not only application data such as database connection strings, but also user-specific data, such as toolbar positions and most-recently-used lists. For more information, see Application Settings Overview.

New Data-Binding Model
The DataConnector component simplifies the process of data-binding because it acts as an intermediary between the bound control and the target data source. It automatically manages many of the more difficult binding issues such as currency, data-related events, and target data-source changes. It is also designed to interoperate with other data-related Windows Forms controls, particularly the DataNavigator and the DataGridView controls. For more information, see DataConnector Component. The DataConnector component was designed to simplify the process of binding controls to an underlying data source. It acts as both a conduit and a data source to which other controls bind.

New Windows Forms Controls
The DataGridView control provides a powerful and flexible way to display data in a tabular format. It can be used to show read-only views of a small amount of data, or it can be scaled to show editable views of very large sets of data. The data can reside in an external data source or be added directly to the control. For more information, see DataGridView Control Overview.

ToolStrip controls are toolbars that can host menus, controls, and user controls in your Windows Forms applications. The ToolStrip and its associated classes enable you to create toolbars and other user interface elements in a style that is consistent with Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or can be customized. For more information, see ToolStrip Control Overview.

The MaskedTextBox control uses a mask definition to distinguish between valid and invalid user input. For more information, see MaskedTextBox Control.

The Windows Forms SoundPlayer component enables you to easily include sounds in your applications. The SoundPlayer component can play sound files in the .wav format, either from a resource or from Universal Naming Conventions (UNC) or HTTP locations. Additionally, the SoundPlayer component enables you to load or play sounds asynchronously. For more information see SoundPlayer Component.

The Windows Forms SplitContainer control can be thought of as a composite; it is two panels separated by a movable bar. When the mouse pointer hovers over the bar, the cursor changes to show that the bar is movable. Use this control to create complex, resizable user interfaces that are effective for displaying and browsing information. For more information see SplitContainer Control.

The ListView control now supports three features provided by Windows XP and the Windows Server 2003 family: tile view, grouping, and drag-and-drop item repositioning.

The ActiveDocumentHost control lets you display active documents such as Microsoft Office documents in your Windows Forms applications. Active documents are documents designed to allow hosting in other documents or applications. Active documents are initially displayed in a static, read-only state, but can be activated in place to allow user editing. For more information, see ActiveDocumentHost Control Overview.

The WebBrowser control lets you host Web pages in your Windows Forms applications. You can use the WebBrowser control to provide integrated HTML-based Help or Internet Web browsing capabilities in your application. Additionally, you can use the WebBrowser control to convert existing Web applications to client applications that seamlessly integrate dynamic HTML (DHTML) code with the user interface capabilities of Windows Forms. For more information, see WebBrowser Control Overview.

The FlowLayoutPanel control arranges its contents in a horizontal or vertical flow direction. The TableLayoutPanel control arranges its contents in a grid. Because the layout is performed both at design time and run time, it can change dynamically as the application environment changes. For more information, see FlowLayoutPanel Control Overview and TableLayoutPanel Control Overview.

The BackgroundWorker component enables you to perform operations in the background that can take a long time to execute, such as image downloads and database transactions. For more information see BackgroundWorker Component Overview.

The Asynchronous Pattern for Components is an event-driven model that makes available the advantages of multithreaded applications while hiding many of the complex issues inherent in multithreaded design. For more information, see Asynchronous Pattern for Components.

XML-Related Features
The .NET Framework 2.0 Beta includes support for the XQuery language, a new XML data store, and a mapping technology that allows you to map data that is stored in a relational database to an XML view, or a common language runtime (CLR) object view. In addition, there are also enhancements to existing XML-related classes including type support on the XmlReader, XmlWriter, and XPathNavigator classes, a new model for creating XmlReader and XmlWriter objects, a new XSL Transformation (XSLT) processor, and performance improvements. For more information, see What's New in System.Xml.
Send comments about this topic to Microsoft.
ї Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

---

code:

This topic lists the new and enhanced features available with this release of Visual Studio. Unless otherwise noted, the features listed in this topic are available to Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual C#, Visual J#, and Visual Web Developer. Select from the links below to read the sections in this topic.

Section
 Description
 
Productivity Features
 Provides information about predefined settings, exporting and importing options and settings from other computers, and new Task List features.
 
Editing Code
 Provides information about new features available to all editors as well as HTML and XML-specific features.
 
Projects, Solutions, and Items
 Provides information about new features, such as stand-alone projects and Simplified Build, available with this release.
 
Building, Debugging, and Deploying
 Provides information about the new Microsoft .NET Build engine, new debug features such as Edit and Continue for Visual Basic and debugging code at design time, and ClickOnce Deployment.
 
Automation
 Provides information about XML Registration, managed code add-ins, and synchronous find.
 
Help
 Provides information about the new Help search options, as well as browsing Help based on task categories.
 
Docking Windows
 Provides information about the new visual cues that are available when you drag windows to new positions.
 
Enterprise Templates and Policies
 Provides information about how changes to the XML schema might affect existing templates and policies.
 
Smart Devices
 Provides information about enhancements for targeting Windows MobileT-based devices such as Smartphone and Pocket PC.
 

 Productivity Features 
Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Settings
Predefined settings consist of customizations made to the integrated development environment (IDE) based on different types of development activities and your own customizations. These customizations include window configurations, hiding or exposing menu commands, menu and menu command name changes, keyboard shortcuts, and changing defaults for tools options to name a few. For more information, see Settings in Visual Studio.

The first time that you start Visual Studio, you are asked to make a selection from a list of predefined settings. Any further customizations you make to the IDE, such as adding a shortcut key combination or changing the docking location of a window, are tracked and stored along with the predefined settings. You can reset your current settings by choosing Import/Export Settings on the Tools menu. For more information about the optimizations included in the predefined settings, see Visual Studio Settings.

Exporting and Importing Options Settings
You can now export the settings you use in the IDE to a file and use that file on other computers. Use the Import/Export Settings dialog box, available on the Tools menu, to save all of your environment settings or just specific categories of settings such as fonts and colors or editor settings. From this same dialog box, you can import a settings file created by you or a trusted co-worker. For more information, see Sharing Options Settings Between Computers.

Task List
The following features are available in this release: 

Text display   Multiple lines of text can be displayed in any row. For example, an entire description can be displayed. 
Column sorting   A sort triangle has been added to column headers to show that the column is sorted and whether sorting is ascending or descending. 
Multiple-column sorting   To sort on a second column, press and hold the Shift key and click the second column heading. 
Show Columns command   Specify which columns to display by using the Show Columns command on the context menu for the Task List. 
Move columns   Columns can be moved by using the drag-and-drop method. 
Show files   By default, only the file name is displayed, not the path. To change the default, select Options from the Toolsmenu, and then choose Environment. On the Task List page, select Show files without path. 

 Editing Code 
Text Editor
The following features are available in this release: 

Line Revision Marks   Allows you to see the edits you did to a file in the current IDE session. Edits are identified by a visual indicator in the margin. Lines that have been edited or lines adjacent to deleted lines are marked. When the margin is highlighted yellow, this means that the line was edited and the file has yet to be saved. If the margin is highlighted green, it means the line was edited before the last save pass. You can customize the highlight color from the Options dialog box by updating "Track Changes before save" in "Display items" on the Fonts and Colors page. You can turn this option off by unselecting "Track Changes" on the General tab of the Text Editor page in the Options dialog box. 
Bookmark window   This tool window allows you to manage and control your bookmarks. You will be able to put related bookmarks in folders, name them, and re-order them as you see fit. 
Param tip copying/pasting   Allows you to copy and paste parameter tips directly into your code. Two commands are available: Insert (ALT+I) which inserts the tool tip into code, and Copy (ALT+C) which copies the tool tip to the clipboard for later usages. 
Refactoring   You can now re-factor changes to Visual C# and Visual J# code. These refactoring options include rename, extract method, extract interface, change signature, and encapsulate field. These options are available from the Refactor menu. For more information, see Refactoring. 
Smart tags   Similar to Office XP smart tags, Visual Studio smart tags make common tasks available given the context of your work. For example, using smart tags you can now correct some common errors in Visual Basic with a click of a button. 
Code Snippets   Visual Studio now provides segments of sample code ready to insert into Visual Basic, Visual C#, or Visual J# projects. To display a list of available code snippets, right-click the active document in the Code Editor and select Insert Snippet from the shortcut menu. Select the name of the snippet you need, and the code is inserted into the editor, ready for you to modify as needed. To manage the folders in which you store code snippets and add new snippets, select Code Snippet Manager from the Tools menu. For more information, see Smart Code Snippet Manager Sample and Expansions. 
AutoRecover   This feature automatically saves files that contain changes every five minutes. If the IDE shuts down unexpectedly, files with changes are available for recovery. You can customize the AutoRecover options in the Options dialog box. For more information, see AutoRecover, Environment, Options Dialog Box. 
Web Page and HTML Designer
Visual Studio features a new Web page designer named Visual Web Developer that includes many enhancements for creating and editing ASP.NET Web pages and HTML pages. It provides a simpler, faster way to create Web Forms pages than in Visual Studio .NET 2003.

Visual Web Developer features improvements in all areas of Web site development. You can create and maintain Web sites as local folders, in Internet Information Services (IIS), or on an FTP or SharePoint server. The Visual Web Developer designer supports all ASP.NET enhancements, including nearly two dozen new controls that simplify many Web development tasks. 

Design view includes many improvements that support new ASP.NET features or enhance the WYSIWYG Web page design experience. Task-based editing helps you perform the most common procedures with controls, such as data binding and formatting. You can edit the new ASP.NET master pages visually. Template editing has been improved to make it easier to work with data controls as well as new controls such as the Login control. Editing HTML tables for layout or to display columnar information is now easier and more intuitive.

Visual Web Developer produces XHTML 1.1 markup by default. At the same time, you can select from a list of schemas that help you produce markup to match the abilities of different browser or standards. HTML validation flags markup that does not conform to the selected schema. 

The HTML editor also provides options to allow you to precisely control the format of all HTML and of ASP.NET markup. Formatting is preserved exactly as is when switching views.

You can easily move around your documents with the new tag navigators that show you where you are in the current hierarchy. Using the tag outline feature, you can collapse sections of the document, such as large tables. 

For programming, the code editor provides better productivity with enhanced IntelliSense. Visual Web Developer supports both a code-behind and a single-file page model for writing the code for an ASP.NET Web page. An improved code-behind model helps you create simplified, more robust code for the page. You can reference components automatically by simply adding them to folder in your site. Data binding is substantially easier, and in many cases requires no code at all. At the same time, you can easily access data in databases, XML files, or business objects. For more information, see Visual Web Developer Overview.

XML Editor
Visual Studio features a new code editor that provides support for the XML languages. It provides color-coding and Intellisense support. The XML Editor includes the following features:

XML 1.0 syntax checking. 
Support for Document Type Definition (DTD). 
Support for XML Schema definition language (XSD) schema. 
Data validation using a DTD or XML Schema. 
The ability to create an XML Schema from an XML instance document. 
The ability to convert a DTD or XML-Data Reduced (XDR) schema into an XML Schema. 
XSLT 1.0 syntax checking. 
For more information, see XML Editor.

 Projects, Solutions, and Items 
The following features are available for this release: 

Temporary Projects   With Temporary Projects, you can create and experiment with a project without having to save it; simply create a new project and start coding. 
Stand-alone projects   If a solution contains only one project, you will not see the solution in Solution Explorer nor do you see commands that act on solutions in the Integrated Development Environment (IDE), although the solution files will still be created. 
Simplified Build   Provides Visual Basic 6.0-style build options for Visual Basic programmers. 
Solution Folders   Enables users with very large, complex solutions to organize projects by grouping them in folders in Solution Explorer. 
Project Designer   All project properties and settings are now centrally located in the Project Designer, including improved access to resources and strong-name signing within the IDE 
Referencing an EXE   You can now reference .EXEs as well as .DLLs in Visual Studio. Use this feature when you would like to use classes and methods which are contained in an executable. 
Visual Studio Conversion Wizard   Solutions or projects that were created in or upgraded to Visual Studio .NET 2002 or Visual Studio .NET 2003 must be converted to the format that is used by this version of Visual Studio before you can work with them in this version of Visual Studio. Converted solutions or projects are no longer compatible with Visual Studio .NET 2002 or Visual Studio .NET 2003. Using the wizard, you can choose whether to create a backup of the solution or project before it is converted. For more information, see Visual Studio Conversion Wizard. 
Create Project from Existing Code Files Wizard   Use this wizard to create a Visual Studio project from existing code files. The project is created on your computer and all relevant files are added to the project. When you work with this new project in the Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE), you have all the tools you need to design, develop, debug, and deploy your application. You can view, edit, build, and debug your code files using coding aids such as IntelliSense. 
Solution and Project Platform Targeting   In the Configuration Manager dialog box, you can now select the platform on which to build the solution, add new solution platforms, and edit existing solution platforms 
Starter Kits   A starter kit is essentially an enhanced project template that can be shared with other members of the community. A starter kit includes code samples that compile, documentation, and other helpful resources to enable you to learn new tools and programming techniques while building useful, real world applications. 
Projects and Solutions options   A new node has been created in the Options dialog box, called Projects and Solutions, that contains separate pages for General and Build and Run options. 
Custom Project and Project Item Templates   You can now easily create your own custom template for projects or project items or modify existing project and project items templates to better meet your development needs. Once created, these custom templates appear in the New Project dialog box and Add New Item dialog box. In addition to the project file and code files, the template includes an XML file that provides template metadata, which Visual Studio uses to define how to display the project in the development environment and, if you have specified the appropriate properties, to customize how the project is created in the development environment. All the files are compressed into a .zip file that can easily be shared with others. 

 Building, Debugging, and Deployment 
Microsoft .NET Build Engine
The Microsoft Build Engine (MSBuild) is the new build system for .NET managed client applications and future versions of Visual Studio. MSBuild introduces a new XML-based file format that is simple to understand, easy to extend, and fully supported by Microsoft. The MSBuild file format enables developers to fully describe what items need to be built as well as how they need to be built under different platforms and configurations. In addition, the file format enables developers to author re-usable rules that can be factored into separate files so that builds can be done consistently across different projects within your product. MSBuild is completely transparent with regards to how it processes and builds software. The MSBuild build process is defined by atomic units of build operation (tasks). You can author your own tasks in any .NET language in order to extend the build process. You cannot use MSBuild to build the following types of projects: Web projects, deployment projects, and Visual C++ projects.

Debugging
The following features are available in this release: 

Edit and Continue for Visual Basic   You can change your Visual Basic code while debugging your application and continue running your application. This feature improves your productivity by allowing you to fix errors rapidly, test new functionality, and modify existing functionality. 
More Secure Remote Debugging With Simpler Setup   Set up remote debugging by copying a single executable to the remote computer. No more complex setup instructions or registration. Remote debugging is now more secure and robust. In addition, you can now debug 64-bit managed and unmanaged applications. 
Visualizers   Powerful tools enable viewing of data in an intuitive and natural format. You can launch a visualizer from a Watch window or from the new enhanced DataTips. For example, you can now view a string as an HTML or an XML document. You can use our visualizers or write your own. 
Enhanced Debugger DataTip0073   Debugger DataTips have been improved. You can navigate the contents of complex data structures right in the source editor. You can open a visualizer from a DataTip to view your data in an intuitive and natural format. 
Just My Code DebuggingT   This feature allows you to focus on code you have written. Now, you can debug code that you are interested in without worrying about other code. 
Tracepoints and Improved Breakpoint UI   Breakpoints are not just for breaking anymore. Tracepoints are a new way of using breakpoints to perform a custom action. With tracepoints, you can print a message or run a Visual Studio automation macro, and you determine whether the debugger breaks or continues when it hits a tracepoint. We've also improved the user interface to make setting all breakpoints easier and faster. 
Better Tools for Multiprocess Debugging   The new Processes window shows all processes you are attached to for debugging. Breakpoint filters allow you to attach a breakpoint to specified processes, threads, and machines. Attach to Process dialog box is simplified for ease of use, with attached processes information moved from the dialog box to the Processes window. 
Exception Assistant for Visual Basic, C#, and J#   The new Exception Assistant dialog box provides better information when an exception occurs in a Visual Basic, C#, or J# program. 
Improved Support for Managing Debug Information   Better support for symbol server and diagnostic messages for troubleshooting debug information. 
Debugging Code at Design Time   You can debug your application while designing it. Using the Immediate window, you can test and debug your functions and methods without having to run your application. 
Support for XSLT Debugging   You can set breakpoints within style sheets, view XSLT execution state, and so on. The debugger supports debugging a style sheet or an XSL transform invoked from another application. For more information, see Debugging XSLT. 
Deployment
ClickOnce Deployment   ClickOnce deployment allows you to deploy self-updating Windows applications that can be installed and run as easily as Web applications. You can deploy Windows client and Command Line applications. There is a new Publish Project command on the Project menus. For more information, see ClickOnce Deployment. 
Bootstrapping Prerequisites   You can now include required system components such as the .NET Framework runtime as a part of a deployment project or ClickOnce deployment. For more information, see Deploying Prerequisites. 
Windows Installer Deployment   Improvements to Setup and Deployment projects include the ability to choose between per-user or per-machine installation, support for 64-bit deployment, and deployment to Web Servers that host multiple Web sites. 

 Automation 
The following features are available in this release: 

XML Add-in Registration   You can now use XML files to define the registration settings for add-ins, allowing you to simply copy the XML registration file to the right folder for Visual Studio to find and load your add-in. The inclusion of comments describing the primary sections of the document can help you to read and edit .Addin files. This takes the place of registering components in the registry. You can read more details about this in Add-In Registration. 
DTE2.Toolwindows   The new T:EnvDTE80.ToolWindows object (also available as the P:EnvDTE80.DTE2.ToolWindows property) improves the discoverability and usability of tool windows in the object model by providing easy access to the tool windows in the IDE in their native types. Visual Studio tool windows may be accessed through member properties. Other tool windows may be located with the M:EnvDTE80.ToolWindows.GetToolWindow function. 
DTE.Toolwindows.CreateToolWindow2   Creates a new tool window and hosts a user-defined control in it. A shim control is no longer required. 
Managed code add-ins   The Add-in wizard now supports Managed Visual C++, and now support getting resources from managed satellite DLLs. 
Managed tools options   New options on the Tools menu for managed code. 
Add-In Wizard and Visual J#   The Add-In Wizard now supports creating add-ins using Visual J#. 
KeyPress events   The Editor automation model offers a new T:EnvDTE80.TextDocumentKeyPressEvents object which has two events to handle keystroke entries in the Editor: E:EnvDTE80.TextDocumentKeyPressEventsClass.BeforeKeyPress and E:EnvDTE80.TextDocumentKeyPressEventsClass.AfterKeyPress. 
InsertNewLine method   The Editor automation model offers a new M:EnvDTE80.EditPoint2.InsertNewLine method to insert lines in the Editor. 
Solution Folders   Solutions can contain Solution Folders in addition to projects. A Solution Folder is a project container that allows you to better organize large applications. 
Task List default navigation   You can navigate directly to lines in the code by double-clicking items in the Task List. 
Synchronous Find   The Find object offers a new property, P:EnvDTE80.Find2.WaitForFindToComplete, which allows you to specify whether the search is performed synchronously or asynchronously. 
Tool window command bar support   Some tool windows include a toolbar for accessing its functionality. Although these toolbars are not available from the P:EnvDTE80.DTE2.CommandBars collection, they are available on the Window object of the tool window. 
Enhanced AddNamedCommand   An additional parameter in M:EnvDTE80.Commands2.AddNamedCommand2 now allows you to specify the style of the button, such as text only, icon only, text, and icon. You can also create additional types of controls to place in the toolbars and menus, such as list box controls, edit box controls, and drop-down menu controls. 
Localization   Sample macros are localized, and the Add-In Wizard now generates add-ins with the appropriate language. For example, if you are running Japanese Visual Studio, add-ins are created using the Japanese templates (if they are available). 
Add-In and Macro Security   You can now specify whether macros are allowed to run, whether add-ins are allowed to load, and where Visual Studio searches for .Addin configuration files. For more information, see Add-In Security and Macros Security and Sharing Issues. 
Code Model Consistency   All the programming languages in Visual Studio use more of the core code model than previous versions, making for a more consistent programming experience. 
Code Model Events   New for the code model, allows you to track and respond to changes happening in the code. 
Core Model Additions   A new assembly called EnvDTE80 contains a number of new automation members. For more information, see New Automation Members for Visual Studio "Whidbey". 
Language Model Additions   A new assembly called VSLangProj80 contains a number of new automation members for Visual Basic and Visual C#. For more information, see New Automation Members for Visual Studio "Whidbey". 
New Documentation for the IVSS Automation Model   The automation model for Visual SourceSafe, known as IVSS, now has documentation. You can view it at Visual SourceSafe Automation. 
More Code Snippets   The Help topics for the various automation object models now contain more example code, many of them containing both Visual Basic and Visual C# snippets. 

 Help 
Many enhancements have been made to Help for this release. These enhancements include:

Help viewer default   Help displays in an external Help viewer, Microsoft Document Explorer, by default rather than inside the IDE. 
How Do I page   This page contains a list of task topics, organized by category and subcategory, for a subset of the documentation set of a product. Use this page to quickly locate information by subject area. 
Community integration   You can access forums and newsgroups, directly from within Help, to post questions, search for interesting threads, or check the status of your post. 
Search   Search results now display an abstract for each topic. In addition, icons appear at the bottom of the topic abstract that provide additional information such as the programming language a topic applies to, as well as the topic source. 
For more information, see What's New in Document Exploration.

Online Help Sources
You can now choose to incorporate MSDN Online and Code Wise Community content in your Help experience. MSDN Online has the latest product documentation, including quarterly updates. Code Wise Community content includes articles, samples, and other information located on select third-party Web sites, such as GotDotNet. The first time you attempt to access Help, a dialog box appears requesting that you specify your help source preferences. You can change your online Help preference at any time from the Online, Help, Environment, Options Dialog Box.

For F1 Help, you can choose to use MSDN Online exclusively, or as a backup if local Help does not have an appropriate topic. For search, you can choose to search local and online Help, online Help only, or local Help only. Search results are grouped by the source of the topic: Local Help, MSDN Online, and Code Wise Community. Only one set of results can be viewed at a time. You can switch among the different sources' results by selecting a source on the right of your search results.

You can choose to temporarily use only local Help if you have disconnected from the Internet or anticipate connection problems by choosing Work Offline on the Help menu. When you have reestablished an Internet connection, clear the Work Offline selection to return to your original Help source settings.

 Docking Windows 
As you drag a tool window across a frame where it can be docked, a guide diamond appears. The four arrows of the diamond point toward the edges of the enclosing frame. Whenever the window you are dragging reaches a position where it can be docked, the arrow that points toward the edge where it can be fastened darkens. If the window can join a tabbed group, the center of the diamond darkens. To dock the window, release the mouse. The guide diamond makes it much easier to place your active windows just where you want them. 

 Enterprise Templates and Policies 
A new XML schema for the policy description language is included. The schema replaces Template Description Language and allows you to define policies that can be applied to a project or to a Solution Folder. Templates and policies created in previous versions of Visual Studio can be converted to work in this release.

 Smart Devices 
This release provides an enhanced environment for targeting Windows MobileT-based devices such as Smartphone and Pocket PC. Improvements include Visual C++ tools and native device runtimes, managed designers that provide improved platform-specific WYSIWYG and multiple form factor support, a new emulator, data handling tools similar to the desktop, and end-user deployment projects that eliminate the manual editing of .inf files. For more information, see What's New in Smart Device Projects.

 See Also