The Release Candidate (RC) for Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 is now available to the public. The biggest change from Beta 2 is a major improvement to Visual Studio performance, specifically as it relates to loading solutions, typing, building and debugging. The RC includes a “go-live license” for companies that wish to deploy Visual Studio 2010 in their production environment.
Download VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 RC
The Release Candidate (RC) for Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 is now available to the public. The biggest change from Beta 2 is a major improvement to Visual Studio performance, specifically as it relates to loading solutions, typing, building and debugging. The RC includes a “go-live license” for companies that wish to deploy Visual Studio 2010 in their production environment.
Download VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 RC
Do you need help convincing your boss that your company needs to upgrade to Visual Studio 2010? Or perhaps you are looking for additional ammo in your .NET vs. Java religious wars with your programming colleagues?
Microsoft has produced a Silverlight-based “Myth Busting Matrix” for Visual Studio. This nifty web tool details the benefits of upgrading to Visual Studio 2010 and helps dispel some widely-held myths about Visual Studio and the Microsoft .NET Framework. You can browse all three supported versions of Visual Studio (2005, 2008 and 2010) by your areas of interest and click on the myths for more information.
Visual Studio Myth Buster
The second beta version of Visual Studio 2010 and Microsoft .NET Framework v4.0 are now available. VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 deliver significant new capabilities and improvements. The Beta 2 release was focused on performance, stability, and the integration of the overall feature set. The development team is awaiting our feedback on the product and preparing for the final release candidate (RC). Beta 2 includes a “go-live” license, which means you can start using these tools for your production projects.
VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 are slated to be released on March 22, 2010.
Download VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 Beta 2
More details about Beta 2 from Scott Gu
The good news is that Microsoft .NET Framework is installed on a majority of Windows PCs. The bad news is if you are developing an application with the newest version of .NET (3.5), nearly half of Windows PCs cannot run your app.
Story at DevTopics
The Windows API Code Pack for Microsoft .NET Framework provides support for various features of Windows 7 and previous releases of that operating system.
The Code Pack includes the following features:
- Windows 7 Taskbar Jump Lists, Icon Overlay, Progress Bar, Tabbed Thumbnails, and Thumbnail Toolbars.
- Windows 7 Libraries, Known Folders, non-file system containers.
- Windows Shell Search API support, a hierarchy of Shell Namespace entities, and Drag and Drop functionality for Shell Objects.
- Explorer Browser Control.
- Shell property system.
- Windows Vista and Windows 7 Common File Dialogs, including custom controls.
- Windows Vista and Windows 7 Task Dialogs.
- and much more!
More Information
Download Windows 7 Code Pack
Microsoft is applying its Community Promise to the C# programming language and Common Language Infrastructure (CLI). This means that anyone can freely build, sell, distribute or use programs with C# and the CLI without signing a license agreement or otherwise communicating to Microsoft. This applies to all distribution models including open source and GPL. Under the Community Promise, Microsoft will not assert its Necessary Claims.
In other words, build all you want with C# and .NET, Microsoft won’t sue you for copyright or patent infringement.
Specifically, this announcement applies to the ECMA 334 (C#) and ECMA 335 (CLI) specifications.
“The Community Promise is an excellent vehicle and, in this situation, ensures the best balance of interoperability and flexibility for developers,” said Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President for the .NET Developer Platform.
Documentation for the next generation of the Visual Studio, the .NET Framework, and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is now publicly available at MSDN.
Visual Studio 2010 Docs
.NET Framework 4 Docs
WPF Docs
Microsoft has just released the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1): Release Candidate (RC).
The Microsoft Windows SDK is a set of tools, code samples, documentation, compilers, headers, and libraries that developers can use to create applications that run on Microsoft Windows operating systems. The Windows SDK combines two formerly separate SDKs: the Platform SDK (PSDK) and the .NET Framework SDK.
The following is a small sampling of what’s new or updated in this SDK:
- Documentation – Approximately 80% of the SDK documentation set has been refreshed
- Headers/Libraries – numerous new and updated – please see What’s New in the Windows API under the top-level Getting Started section in the documentation
- Samples – Over 200 new and/or updated samples
- Tools – Several new tools added
- Visual Studio 2008 SP1 C++ command line compiler toolset and matching CRT
Windows SDK
The .NET development team at Microsoft has created a new .NET logo. Their goal was to create a logo “that was in sync with the key values that we want .NET to stand for: consistency, robustness and great user experiences.”
Read more at C#411 >>
