Getting Started with Visual Studio

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This page is specific to

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008/.NET Framework 3.5

Other versions are also available for the following:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005/.NET Framework 2.0

Visual Studio

Getting Started with Visual Studio

Updated: November 2007

You can use several methods to become familiar with Visual Studio, whether you have used other versions of the product or are new to the product.

Familiar with previous releases of Visual Studio?

If you have used earlier versions of Visual Studio, the following topics are a good way to learn more about this version and get you up and running quickly.

For a comprehensive list of new features, see An Overview of Visual Studio.

Migrating Existing Applications

With each release, some tools and technologies are replaced with better methods for achieving your programming goals. As a result, applications created by using an earlier version of Visual Studio might have to be updated in order to load and build correctly with the current version of Visual Studio.

For applications created by using	See
Visual Basic	Upgrading Applications Created in Previous Versions of Visual Basic and Walkthrough: Upgrading a Visual Basic 6.0 Application to the Current Version of Visual Basic
Visual C#	Migrating to Visual C#
Visual C++	Porting and Upgrading Programs How to: Upgrade Projects from Previous Versions of Visual C++
Visual Studio Web designer	Visual Web Developer Project Migration from Visual Studio
Classic ASP	Migrating to ASP.NET

New to Visual Studio?

If you are new to .NET programming or Visual Studio, the following topics are a good place to start familiarizing yourself with the product.

Visual Studio Walkthroughs

Walkthroughs guide you through the completion of a task using Visual Studio. Use walkthroughs to become familiar with the product and see how the various technologies can be used together.

Term	Definition
Rich Client Application Walkthroughs	Describes the process for creating an MFC-based rich client application.
Web Forms Application Walkthroughs	Describes the process for creating a Web-based application integrated with business-object components written for Visual Basic, Visual C#, or C++.
Creating and Accessing Web Services Walkthroughs	Describes the process for creating an XML Web service that uses Visual Basic or C#, C++, or ATL Server, and then using the XML Web service from an application.
ASP.NET Selected Walkthroughs	List walkthroughs that illustrate how to use Visual Web Developer to create Web sites.

For additional walkthroughs, see Visual Studio Walkthroughs.

Samples

Samples provide a good way of seeing how a particular programming task has been implemented in code. A variety of samples are available in the following topics:

For additional samples, see Visual Studio Samples.

Concepts

Introducing Visual Studio

How Do I in General Development

Product Families

Resources

About Microsoft

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Migrating Existing Applications

Visual Studio Walkthroughs

Samples

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