Visual Studio 2010 Wallpapers

Check out this non-Microsoft site, filled with beautiful Community Created Visual Studio 2010 Wallpapers -

 

 

 

 

And many many more…………

You can submit yours also

Link - http://vs2010wallpapers.com/ 

(Thanks to @shanselman for the link)

Visual Studio Theme Packs for Windows 7

Get the Visual Studio Theme Packs for Windows 7 from Microsoft Japan.

 

 

At present it has 3 theme packs-

• Bridge themepack
• Garden themepack
• HighWay themepack

Download it from -  http://closeup.jp.msn.com/visualstudio2010/

(thanks to @shanselman)

Free ebook : Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (DRAFT Preview)

Check this Free ebook from Microsoft Press - Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (DRAFT Preview)

 

This DRAFT Preview contains three chapters from what will be a ten-chapter ebook when it’s released this summer. The three chapters make up Part II, “Moving from Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 to Visual Studio 2010.”

You can download the DRAFT Preview of this ebook in XPS format here.

Download size: 63.8MB

UPDATE 22/04/10 – Microsoft has now released it in PDF and XPS Format available now at Download center in new download size for XPS, contents are same -

Moving to Visual Studio 2010 e-Book

PDF  11.4 MB

XPS  32.9 MB

“The book is not a language primer, a language reference, or a single technology book. It's a book that will help professional developers move from previous versions of Visual Studio (starting with 2003 and on up). It will cover the features of Visual Studio 2010 through an application. It will go through a lot of the exciting new language features and new versions of the most popular technologies without putting the emphasis on the technologies themselves. It will instead put the emphasis on how you would get to those new tools and features from Visual Studio 2010.”

For more details Please check source.

(Source – Microsoft Press Blog)

Just a few days back Microsoft Press had provided this -

Free E book - Programming Windows Phone 7 Series By Charles Petzold

For more such Free E-Books please check – meraTechPort

UPDATE 13 May 2010 : Now Moving to Visual Studio 2010 Draft preview II has been added -

Download it from

Moving to Visual Studio 2010 e-Book

Visual Studio 2010 Reviewer's Guide

This reviewer’s guide is designed to give you an overview of the features available in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. It’s intended to give you an understanding of how professional developers can be more creative and more productive while building high-quality applications. The guide highlights the new features and capabilities of the Visual Studio 2010 .

 

This 55 page full color guide has contents like -

 

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit – Feb. Release

Check out the February Release of the Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit. This includes presentations, hands-on labs, and demos. This content is designed to help you learn how to utilize the Visual Studio 2010 features and a variety of framework technologies.

This version of the Training Kit works with Visual Studio 2010 RC and .NET Framework 4 RC.

You can get it from here.

Visual Studio 2010 countdown widget in Silverlight

.NET Devhammer has come up with a nice Visual Studio 2010 Countdown Widget in Silverlight. I have just put this widget on my blog, if you also want to put it on your blog or site, just add the following code to your page or blog:

1: <div id="silverlightControlHost">
   2:     <object data="data:application/x-silverlight-2," type="application/x-silverlight-2" width="190" height="180">
   3:        <param name="initparams" value="TargetDate=03/22/10" />
   4:        <param name="source" value="http://gdtest.members.winisp.net/ClientBin/SilverCountDown.xap"/>
   5:        <param name="onError" value="onSilverlightError" />
   6:        <param name="background" value="black" />
   7:        <param name="minRuntimeVersion" value="3.0.40624.0" />
   8:        <param name="autoUpgrade" value="true" />
   9:        <a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149156&v=3.0.40624.0" style="text-decoration:none">
  10:           <img src="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=108181" alt="Get Microsoft Silverlight" style="border-style:none"/>
  11:       </a>
  12:   </object>
  13:   <iframe id="_sl_historyFrame" style="visibility:hidden;height:0px;width:0px;border:0px"></iframe>
  14: </div>

(Source: Countdown to Visual Studio 2010)

Two More Free e-books from Microsoft Press

You might have seen my earlier posts related to free E-Books offered from Microsoft Press. Now continuing the celebration of  25th Anniversary of Microsoft Press, its offering two more very popular E-Books -

Windows Small Business Server 2008 Administrator's Companion by Charlie Russel and Sharon Crawford (27 chapters, 3 appendices, 719 pages) (PDF, 25.4 MB)

 
Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition: Build a Program Now! by Patrice Pelland (9 chapters, Glossary, 255 pages)(PDF, 7.7 MB)

Its a Must have, full colored hands-on book to learn Visual Basic 2008

NOTE: Get them now, as this offer ends on April 22 from the links provided.

Please note that you have to register to download the Full Book and also it gets downloaded as ‘pdf_loader.pl’ which you have to rename them with .pdf extension to open them in pdf reader.

Free Microsoft Press E-Book:Microsoft® Visual C#® 2008 Express Edition: Build a Program Now!

In my last post I had posted about the Free E-Book Windows Vista Resource Kit, here’s another Microsoft Press E-Book being offered to celebrate its 25th Anniversary:

Microsoft® Visual C#® 2008 Express Edition: Build a Program Now!

By Patrice Pelland
ISBN: 9780735625426

It’s a hands-on book, and you can learn how to program with Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition. All you need is a computer, and the Visual C# Express Edition is also Free to download. Get this Free E-Book now from here, Sign up to download the entire e-book (PDF, 7.8 MB)

EDIT: Some of the blog readers have raised doubt about the file being downloaded, because it downloads a file called ‘pdf_loader.pl’. So proceed with the download , once the download is complete, rename the file with the file extension of .pdf. And it will work.

It's a LIMITED OFFER, so get it while it lasts.

Build Robotics Apps using Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 Express Edition

Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio 2008 Express Edition is a freely available .NET-based programming environment for building robotics applications. The Express Edition is fully functional version but has a feature set that better targets the non-professional developer and hobbyist.

Microsoft® Robotics Developer Studio 2008 Express Edition enables hobbyists and non-professional developers to create robotics applications targeting a wide range of scenarios.
Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio supports a broad set of robotics platforms by either running directly on the platform or controlling it from a Windows device through a communication channel such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth®.
In addition to providing support for Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 Express Edition provides a visual programming environment which allows developers to create applications simply by dragging and dropping components onto a canvas and wiring them together.
The powerful Visual Simulation Environment provides a high-fidelity simulation environment powered by AGEIA Technologies™ PhysX™ engine for running game-quality 3D simulations with real-world physics interactions.
To help developers getting started, the studio contains extensive documentation and a large set of samples and tutorials that illustrate how to write applications ranging from simple "Hello Robot" to complex applications that simultaneously run on multiple robots.

Download it for free from Here

Those interested in Robotics can also check Projects you can Build

“Do your friends refer to you as a Gadget Geek or a Grease Monkey? Do you have a workshop set up in your garage or home office to tinker? Give your creations a brain by using the Visual Studio Express Editions to add programming logic. Are you into robotics? Learn how Microsoft can provide you with the tools to bring your bots to life!”

Projects like:

Controlling Your Lights with Your PC

Set up your own home automation system through your personal computer. Draw your home's floor plan, set up mood lighting and schedule events.

………….. And many more..

Also check : Microsoft Robotics Studio

Build Live Writer Plug-ins:Charles Teague Interview

Check out this interview with Charles Teague from Microsoft who is a part of those building Windows Live Writer. Charles discusses the Windows Live Writer SDK for extending Live Writer. He demonstrates the Polaroid Picture Plug-in and also shows how to build a "Hello World" plug-in in Visual Studio.

The Visual Studio Gallery becomes more community friendly

Earlier I had posted about Visual Studio Gallery on its launch.And since its launch it has been growing as the one stop shop for Visual Studio Extensions. Now it has collection of 600 extensions. And recently it has been much improved by the addition of new set of features. Some of the features are :

· Users can now contribute their own ratings on the quality extensions they’ve tried

· Visitors can optionally provide a detailed review about the extensions.

· a Review Tab added where visitors can sort through the various reviews on an extension

· The “Was this review helpful” lets other browsers sort credible reviews from the rest

· Authors of an extension now get aggregate information about the ratings of their extension

· Improved the category & search results page giving a better summary of the matching extensions.

Adding such features gives the chance to define the quality of the extensions on the Gallery.

And over the coming weeks more things will be added, such as :

· Author contributed Tags for extensions

· RSS Feeds for each category

· Tag based RSS feeds

· Improvements to the new Categories list page

· Improved Submission form

So what are you waiting for, sign-in to Visual Studio Gallery and start reviewing the extensions.

Thanks Anthony @ MS !

Silverlight 2 Beta 2 is available now

As announced earlier in TechEd, Silverlight 2 Beta 2 is available for download. You can Install it from Microsoft Silverlight 2 Beta2. It’s a 4.6 MB download. Beta2 adds a lot of new features. You can check out in detail various improvements from ScottGu’s Blog.

 

You can also check more details about Silverlight at : http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/overview/default.aspx

and http://silverlight.net/GetStarted/

Also check :

Microsoft Silverlight Tools Beta 2 for Visual Studio 2008 : This package is an add-on to provide tooling for Microsoft Silverlight 2 Beta 2. It can be installed either on top of Visual Studio 2008 RTM or Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack Beta, and it provides a Silverlight project system for developing Silverlight applications using C# or Visual Basic.
This download will install the following:

• Silverlight 2 Beta 2
• Silverlight 2 SDK Beta 2
• KB950630 for Visual Studio 2008 RTM or KB950632 for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta
• Silverlight Tools Beta 2 for Visual Studio 2008

For more details check the above link.

Microsoft Silverlight 2 Software Development Kit Beta 2 : This contains documentation, online samples, libraries and tools for developing Silverlight 2 applications.

If you are interested in installing the Silverlight SDK Standalone Documentation then get this:

Microsoft Silverlight2 Software Development Kit Beta 2 Documentation

You can install Silverlight 2 Beta 2 for Developers here.

Along with Silverlight2 beta2 release, comes the release of  Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 Preview and Deep Zoom Composer to take full advantage of Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 release.

Download Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 Preview

Download Deep Zoom Composer

.NET 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit

Earlier last year on the release of Visual Studio 2008, I had posted about Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Training Kit which had Labs, Demos and PPTs and was very helpful in learning VS2008 features and variety of framework technologies. Now comes the .NET 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit May Preview. 

The Visual Studio & .NET Framework evangelism team has released a revision of the .NET 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit, updated to work with Visual Studio 2008 SP1 & .NET 3.5 SP1 Beta 1! The May Preview release includes updated hands-on-labs as well as new presentations.

The following features had their labs updated in this iteration:
ASP.NET AJAX History
ASP.NET MVC
ASP.NET Dynamic Data
ADO.NET Data Services
ADO.NET Entity Framework

You can download the the .NET 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit from here.

For more details check: Lost in Tangent.

Visual Studio Gallery launched

Last month I had posted about MSDN Code Gallery, a portal for snippets, samples and other resources. Now to add to this helping developers Visual Studio Gallery is launched. It showcases free and commercial products that complement or extend Visual Studio, a resource center for all Visual Studio extensions. Visual Studio extensions might include products and free applications in the form of macros, add-ins, packages, project templates, or other types of extensions to Visual Studio that are packaged up and ready to use by the developer to improve their development experience all at one place.

One has to sign-in with his Live ID to publish his VS extension on the Visual Studio Gallery. There are already hundreds of extensions listed on the Visual Studio Gallery. Check out. A very good resource for developers.

DreamSpark - Microsoft Developer and Design Tools FREE for students

How about getting a copy of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft Expression Studio and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 for FREE ? How about having many more developer and testing tools at no charge? Does that sound too good to be true ? But it is true. You can get all these Software, if you are a Student. Students woldwide will be able to download these Professional Tools for free under Microsoft DreamSpark Student program.

Bill Gates unveiled the Microsoft DreamSpark student program (http://channel8.msdn.com/). The program is now available to more than 35 million college students in Belgium, China, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. The program will be further expand to include colleges from other countries, thus potentially reaching up to 1 billion students worldwide.
Earlier all Express Editions of Visual Studio were made available for free, but under DreamSpark a Student can get Professional Tools. This is fantastic!! Really Exciting news for Students !!

The following cutting-edge software will be available to empower students to unlock their ingenuity by building critical skills:
Microsoft developer tools : Visual Studio is the Swiss Army knife of computer programming. These professional-grade products provide a security-enhanced and reliable environment, enabling students to program everything from a cell phone to a robot or to create their own Web page. Students will also be able to invent compelling new gaming content and make their dream game a reality by porting their creations to their Xbox 360 console.
•Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
•Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
•XNA Game Studio 2.0
•12-month free Academic membership in the XNA Creators Club•
Microsoft designer tools: This ultra-versatile suite of tools will enable students to vividly bring their creative visions to life in vibrant new Web site designs and more effective digital content, including animation, imagery and photography.
•Expression Studio, including
•Expression Web
•Expression Blend
•Expression Design
•Expression Media•
Microsoft platform resources: The foundation for development and design platforms, these products deliver a security-enhanced, reliable and manageable environment for students to more quickly turn ideas into reality.
•SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
•Windows Server, Standard Edition

Apart from these Professional Tools, Express editions were already made avaialable for free.

If you are interested in development, also check Windows Live Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio
and Codeplex QuickApps
For more details on DreamSpark, Please check these links:
- Press Release: Microsoft Gives Students Access to Technical Software at No Charge to Inspire Success and Make a Difference
- Microsoft DreamSpark Q&A
and - Microsoft DreamSpark
And also watch what Bill Gates say about it on Channel8 video - Bill Gates talk about Free Software, Students and Technology


Bill Gates talks about Free Software, Students, and Technology

Visual Studio 2008 Training Kit

Visual Studio 2008 has RTMed yesterday! Along with it, .NET 3.5 has also been released. The entire family of Visual Studio products (from the Express Editions to the Professional version to Visual Studio Team Suite) and .NET Framework 3.5 are available for immediate download here.
(source: Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 shipped!)

Now coming to the subject of Training Kit,

The Visual Studio 2008 Training Kit contains a full 5-days of technical content including 20 hands-on labs, 28 presentations, and 20 scripted demos. The technologies covered in the kit include: LINQ, C# 3.0, VB 9, WCF, WF, WPF, Windows CardSpace, Silverlight, ASP.NET Ajax, .NET Compact Framework 3.5, VSTO 3.0, Visual Studio Team System, and Team Foundation Server.

Originally developed for early adoption work with ISVs, it is now available to all.

You can download the entire training kit from the download center here: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7602397.

The kit is just over 120MB compressed. After downloading the kit, simply run the installation program to extract the contents to your local machine. Once the installation process is complete, you will see an HTML page that allows you to navigate through the contents of the kit. (source:Visual Studio 2008 Training Kit updated for RTM)

UPDATE: You can also watch first of the Visual Studio 2008 Training kit screencasts at
VS2008 Training Kit: Lap around Visual Studio 2008 & .NET Framework 3.5

This session was presented by James Conard and is the first session from the Visual Studio 2008 training kit available from the previously given link
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7602397

April Fools' Day Prank

Check out this April Fools' Day prank application from Microsoft's Brian Peek, available on coding4fun. You can download it here.
If you are into coding, then just look into C# or Visual Basic codes provided, whichever you like, to see what goes into this prank and how it was created.
Else if you just want to have the prank, just goto the deployment section to read , how to deploy it on somebody's PC.
How to deploy:

"Simply copy the AprilFoolsDay.exe and AprilFoolsDay.exe.config files to his or her PC. (You may want to enlist someone as the “lookout” so you don’t get caught while doing so!) Create a shortcut to it in the Startup program group, or set it up to run via the registry using the following key for the logged in user:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Simply create a new string key with any Name, and a Data value of the path to the executable.

Next, start the application once on their PC to setup the date and time for the show to begin. Once that is done, the application will remain running in the background. If the PC is restarted, and the application is setup to run at startup as described above, it will start silently and remain running, waiting for the date and time specified.

If you need to reset the configuration for any reason, simply run the application from the command line with the -config switch and it will display the configuration dialog box again."

Thanks to Brian for this.
So have some fun !!

Defy all Challenges

Check this Microsoft's cool site http://www.defyallchallenges.com/ about Visual Studio.
Explore it.