Visual Studio 2010 Product Highlights http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd547188.

aspx

Visual Studio
2010 Product
Highlights
Visual Studio 2010

This topic contains information about some of the

important enhancements in Visual Studio 2010.

Visual Studio IDE Improvements

The following sections describe improvements to the
Visual Studio IDE.

New Appearance and Behavior

The following illustration shows the Visual Studio

integrated development environment (IDE).

Visual Studio IDE

Visual enhancements

The IDE has been redesigned for improved

readability. Unnecessary lines and gradients have
been removed to reduce clutter.

Support for multiple monitors

Document windows such as the Code Editor and the

Design view window can now be placed outside the
IDE window. For example, you can drag the Code
Editor out of the IDE so that you can view it and the
Design view window side by side.

Tools to Help You Quickly Explore Code

Code Editor

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Code Editor

The new Code Editor makes code easier to read. You

can zoom in on text by pressing CTRL and scrolling
with the mouse wheel. Also, when you click a
symbol in Visual C# or Visual Basic, all instances of
that symbol are automatically highlighted. For more
information, see What's New in the Visual Studio
2010 Editor.

Search-As You Type

The new Navigate To feature provides search-

as-you-type support for files, types, and members.
Navigate To enables you to take advantage of Camel
casing and underscores to abbreviate your search
text. For example, you can use "AOH" to search for
"AddOrderHeader." For more information, see How
to: Search for Objects, Definitions, and References
(Symbols).

Call Hierarchy

In Visual C# and Visual C++, Call Hierarchy enables

you to navigate from a member to the members
that call it and to the members that it calls. This is
useful for exploring object-oriented code. For more
information, see Call Hierarchy.

Debugging

A redesigned Threads window provides filtering, call-stack

searching and expansion, and grouping. Also, you can now
organize and search breakpoints and share them with
other developers. For more information, see What's New
in the Visual Studio Debugger.

The new Parallel Stacks and Parallel Tasks windows help

you to visualize and debug parallel code that is written in
C++, C#, or Visual Basic. For more information, see Using
the Parallel Stacks Window and Using the Parallel Tasks
Window.

IDE Features Correspond to Project Capabilities

Features in the IDE, such as Add Reference and the

Toolbox, now correspond to the version of the .NET
Framework or Silverlight that your project targets. As a
result, types, members, and controls from assemblies that
target an earlier version of the .NET Framework do not
appear in IntelliSense and produce background
compilation errors. For example, if your project targets
.NET Framework 2.0 and you use a language feature that
.NET Framework 2.0 does not support, such as anonymous
types, the IDE will mark the code as an error. For more
information, see Targeting a Specific .NET Framework
Version or Profile.

Test-First Support

In Visual Basic or Visual C#, the IDE can now generate

code stubs for new types and members from their usage
before they have been defined. As a result, you can write
tests first, and then generate the code that is required to
compile the tests. Additionally, IntelliSense now provides

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compile the tests. Additionally, IntelliSense now provides

a suggestion mode that prevents IntelliSense from
automatically completing a type or member that has not
yet been defined. For more information, see Generate
From Usage and List Members.

Application Lifecycle Management

The Application Lifecycle Management client application is

now available in all versions of Visual Studio (excluding
Express versions). Application Lifecycle Management
includes version control, work item tracking, build
automation, a team portal, reporting and business
intelligence, Agile Planning Workbooks, and test case
management—everything that you need to collaborate on
your software development projects. Application Lifecycle
Management is included in Visual Studio 2010 with one
Client Access License (CAL). You can purchase additional
Client Access Licenses as needed. For more information,
see What's New for Application Lifecycle Management in
Visual Studio 2010.

Code Generation and Text Templates

Text templates can be created and used in any version of

Visual Studio, without the need for any other
component. Generating any kind of text file from your
application has been made easier in Visual Studio 2010
with the introduction of Preprocessed Text Templates.
Support for code generation has also been
improved through better integration with the build
system, so that your generated source code is always up
to date after any change to the source model. For more
information, see Code Generation and Text Templates.

Start Page

The Visual Studio 2010 Start Page features a new look

and new functionality. A tabbed content area links to a
variety of selected and categorized learning resources.
This includes MSDN resources, community resources, and
a customizable news feed. An improved Recent Projects
list lets you add projects to the list or remove them with a
single mouse click. You can also install custom Start Pages
from Extension Manager. For more information about the
Start Page, see Start Page.

Extension Manager

You can find and install Visual Studio extensions from the
IDE by clicking Extension Manager on the Tools menu.
Extension Manager downloads and installs community-
published extensions from the Visual Studio Gallery Web
site without requiring that you open a browser. It also
enables you to uninstall, disable, or re-enable installed
extensions. For more information, see Installing and
Managing Visual Studio Extensions.

New Project Dialog Box

The New Project dialog box in Visual Studio

2010 includes the same search and install capabilities as
the Extension Manager, except that it searches only for
project templates and item templates. For more
information, see How to: Find and Install New Templates.

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information, see How to: Find and Install New Templates.

New Help Viewer

The Help Viewer has been completely redesigned for

Visual Studio 2010. You can view documentation online or
offline by using your preferred Web browser, download
the latest documentation on demand, navigate the
documentation by using a simplified table of contents,
search for specific content by using an improved full-text
search algorithm, and use a more streamlined F1 system
to locate content specific to the task that you are working
on. For more information, see Microsoft Help System
Documentation.

Visual Basic and C# Languages

In Visual Studio 2010, the Visual Basic and C# languages
continue to move toward feature parity. This enables you
to choose a language based on personal preferences
because both languages are equally capable. This section
lists some of the new features in C# and Visual Basic.

Visual Basic Language

Visual Basic has new features that shorten syntax and

enable you to write code faster. These features include
auto-implemented properties, implicit line continuation,
collection initializers, and single- and multi-statement
lamdba expressions. Additionally, Visual Basic now
supports simplified deployment through type equivalence.
For more information, see What's New in Visual Basic
2010.

C# Language

The new features in the C# language work together to

simplify programming with the Microsoft Office APIs. With
named and optional arguments, you no longer have to
specify values for every optional parameter when you call
COM methods. With dynamic support, you can reference
any object, such as return values from COM APIs or
dynamic languages, without using an explicit type cast.
Indexed properties and optional ref modifiers facilitate
access to COM interfaces. Also, type equivalence support
simplifies deployment by embedding types from primary
interop assemblies (PIAs) directly in your assembly. For
more information, see What's New in Visual C# 2010.

Visual F#
Visual Studio 2010 includes F#, a new .NET Framework
language that supports functional programming and
traditional object-oriented and imperative (procedural)
programming. F# combines the succinct, expressive, and
compositional style of functional programming with the
runtime, libraries, interoperability, and object model of
the .NET Framework. In other words, you get the best of
both paradigms. For more information, see Visual F#.

Office Development
Visual Studio 2010 includes project templates and tools

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Visual Studio 2010 includes project templates and tools

that you can use to create solutions that extend Microsoft
Office 2010 and the 2007 Microsoft Office system. You can
take advantage of new development features for Office
projects, such as expanded Ribbon Designer support for
Microsoft Office 2010 applications and the ability to create
Office solutions that do not require the Office primary
interop assemblies on end user computers. You can also
use new deployment features in Office projects, such as
the ability to deploy Office solutions to all users on a
computer. For more information, see Office Development
in Visual Studio and What's New in Office Development.

Data Access and Modeling

.NET Framework 4 includes enhancements to the
ADO.NET Entity Framework that further decrease the
amount of coding and maintenance required for
data-driven applications. In Visual Studio 2010, improved
flexibility and customization options in the ADO.NET
Entity Data Model Tools make it easier to create Entity
Framework applications. For more information, see
ADO.NET Entity Framework and ADO.NET Entity Data
Model Tools.

Web Development
Visual Studio 2010 includes improvements that speed up
code authoring, simplify Web deployment, and more.

Faster Code Authoring

Code Snippets

Visual Studio 2010 includes Code Snippets for

HTML, JScript, and ASP.NET controls to help you
write code faster. You can insert snippets from the
Code Snippets Manager or directly from
IntelliSense.

Dramatically Improved IntelliSense for JScript

IntelliSense now parses 2 to 5 times faster, so

there is virtually no processing delay, even
with large script libraries.

IntelliSense accepts diverse coding styles so

that you get full IntelliSense support for
almost every library.

IntelliSense displays XML documentation

comments as you type.

For more information, see Creating and Using IntelliSense

Code Snippets.

Simplified Web Deployment

With Visual Studio 2010, you can package and publish

your Web application in one click.

Web Packages

The Web Deployment Tool, also known as MSDeploy,

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The Web Deployment Tool, also known as MSDeploy,

enables you to package your Web application for
deployment to an Internet Information Services
(IIS) Web server. A Web package is a .zip file or a
folder structure that includes everything a Web
server needs to host your application. It contains
Web content, IIS settings, database scripts,
components, registry settings, and certificates. The
Web Deployment Tool has been integrated into
Visual Studio and enables you to create Web
packages with one click.

One-Click Publishing

You can now publish to a server by using the Web

Deployment Tool, FTP, folder copying, or FrontPage
Server Extensions in one click. Visual Studio stores
all the setting information, such as publish method,
server information, and user credentials.

Web Configuration Transformations

You can now configure your project to transform the

web.config file during deployment. When you deploy
the project, the settings in web.config automatically
match the settings on your debug, staging, and
production servers.

For more information, see ASP.NET Web Application

Project Deployment Overview.

Other Additions

Visual Studio 2010 also includes new features for ASP.NET

and support for MVC-Based Web applications. For more
information, see What's New in ASP.NET 4 and Visual Web
Developer.

WPF and Silverlight Designer

In Visual Studio 2010, various designer improvements
have been made to help you create Windows Presentation
Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight applications.

Improved Support for Silverlight

In Visual Studio 2008, the designer support for Silverlight

projects is limited to a read-only Preview window. In
Visual Studio 2010, the designer support is the same for
Silverlight as it is for WPF projects. For example, in
Silverlight projects you can now select and position items
with a mouse on the designer surface. For more
information, see Windows Presentation Foundation in
Visual Studio.

Drag-and-Drop Data Binding for WPF

After you add a data source to your project, you can

generate data-bound Windows Presentation Foundation
(WPF) controls by dragging items from the Data Sources
window to the WPF Designer. For more information, see
Binding WPF Controls to Data in Visual Studio.

Visualizing WPF objects

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The debugger in Visual Studio 2010 includes the WPF Tree

visualizer, which displays WPF objects in a more useful
way. When you invoke the visualizer on a WPF object
from the Watch window, you see the object displayed as a
tree and a list of properties. For more information, see
How to: Use the WPF Tree Visualizer.

Visual C++ Development

Following are some of the new Visual C++ features.

Improved User Experience

A number of improvements have been made to make the

Visual C++ IDE more responsive, especially when you
work with large applications. Many IDE components, such
as the IntelliSense engine, now parse and process files in
the background. You no longer have to wait for Visual
Studio to re-process the whole project every time that you
modify a header file, switch between project elements, or
reconfigure your project from debug to release.

The new IntelliSense is more accurate because it handles

advanced C++ code constructs and conditionally defined
macros that the old version could not handle.

Improved IntelliSense Error Reporting

In earlier versions of Visual Studio, it can be unclear why

IntelliSense fails for a line of code. In Visual Studio 2010,
the IDE detects code that will cause a loss of IntelliSense
and underlines that code with a red wavy line. In addition,
the IDE reports any IntelliSense errors to the Error
List window. You can double-click the error in the Error
List window to go to the code that is causing a problem.

#include Automatic Completion

The IDE now supports automatic completion for the

#include keyword. When you type #include, the IDE
creates a list of valid header files. As you continue typing,
the IDE filters the list based on your typing. At any time,
you can select the file that you want to include. This
enables you to quickly include files without knowing the
exact file name.

Targeting of Specific Compilers and Libraries

In Visual Studio 2010, Visual C++ projects can target

either the toolset in Visual Studio 2010 or the toolset in
Visual Studio 2008. This enables you to take advantage of
the IDE enhancements in Visual Studio 2010 while you
continue to use an earlier version of the Visual C++
libraries and compiler. To switch between toolsets, you are
only required to change one property in your project file.
For more information, see General Property Page
(Project).

MFC Class Wizard

In Visual Studio 2010, the MFC Class Wizard

is reintroduced. This wizard can be started from anywhere
in your solution. It enables you to add classes, messages,
and variables without having to manually change

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and variables without having to manually change

individual code files.

Build Improvements

Visual C++ projects use a new file format (.vcxproj) that

replaces the old format (.vcproj). To build projects, you
now use MSBuild.exe instead of VCBuild.exe. MSBuild,
which is the build platform for Microsoft, provides several
benefits, including better diagnostics, extensibility, and
integration. For more information, see MSBuild (Visual
C++).

Restart Manager Support

Visual Studio now supports the restart manager in

Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) applications. The
restart manager is a Windows feature that protects users
against accidental data loss by regularly saving open
documents. If your application stops unexpectedly, the
restart manager restarts the application and gives the
user the option of restoring the automatically saved data.
You can add this functionality to an existing application by
adding just one line of code and recompiling. By using the
restart manager, you can greatly reduce the chances of
accidental data loss in your applications. For more
information, see How to: Add Restart Manager Support.

New C++0x Language Features

The Visual C++ compiler introduces five new features to

support the C++0x standard: lambda expressions, rvalue
references, compile-time assertions, expression type
discovery, and automatic type deduction. For more
information, see What's New in Visual C++ 2010.

Parallel Programming
You can now write programs that distribute work across
multiple processors without having to work directly with
threads or the thread pool. Visual Studio 2010 includes
parallel computing libraries for both the C runtime library
(CRT) and the .NET Framework. You can also debug native
and managed applications by using the new
multithreading tools in the Visual Studio debugger. For
more information, see the Parallel Computing Developer
Center Web site.

Parallel Programming in the .NET Framework

.NET Framework 4 includes new libraries that support task

and data parallelism, a parallel implementation of LINQ to
Objects called Parallel Language Integrated Query
(PLINQ), and various new data types for synchronization
and concurrency. These libraries rely on a new task
scheduler that is integrated with the .NET Framework
thread pool. For more information, see Parallel
Programming in the .NET Framework.

Parallel Programming in Visual C++

The C runtime library now includes the Concurrency

Runtime, which is a concurrent programming
infrastructure for C++. For more information, see

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infrastructure for C++. For more information, see

Concurrency Runtime.

Parallel Programming Tools

The following are some tool enhancements that support

parallel programming.

Debugging

The debugger includes new Parallel Tasks and

Parallel Stacks windows that enable you to do the
following:

View the state of all Task instances that are

running in an application.

View the call stacks for all threads in an

application.

Navigate to code from the debugger.

For more information, see Parallel Diagnostic Tools.

SharePoint Development
In Visual Studio 2010, SharePoint development is
significantly improved. You can create, edit, debug,
package, and deploy and activate SharePoint projects
from within Visual Studio. Site deployment is as easy as
pressing F5. You can even browse SharePoint sites by
using Server Explorer/Database Explorer. For more
information, see SharePoint Development in Visual Studio
and What's New in SharePoint Development.

Cloud Computing Tools

In Visual Studio 2010, you can easily install and enable
Windows Azure Tools. Windows Azure Tools enable you to
build scalable Web applications and services on Windows
Azure. To enable Windows Azure Tools, click Cloud
Services in the New Project dialog box. For more
information, see Windows Azure SDK and Windows Azure
Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio.

See Also

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