For Visual Basic programmers, the new version of Visual Studio includes some nice features such as implicit line continuation (no more underscore characters to continue lines), auto-implemented class properties, collection initializers and lambda expressions (essentially functions within functions). On the C# side of things, they’ve added support for late binding to dynamic types, and improved interoperability with COM objects. This is a real benefit to C# developers who need to make extensive use of the Office automation APIs, since these changes make it significantly easier to work with. For the most part, the language changes make it easier to do more with less code, and brings VB and C# into parity with one another in terms of language features and overall functionality. Microsoft decided to merge the VB and C# language teams together, ensuring that both languages are “first class citizens” in the .NET universe.

For those who are interested in working with Visual Studio 2010, here’s some useful links:

• Visual Studio 2010 Express Editions
• Visual Studio 2010 Professional
• .NET Framework 4 Installer
• Visual Studio 2010 Help Keyword Index
• Help Viewer Power Tool

Visual Studio 2010 Professional can be installed as a 30-day trial and you can get an additional 60-day extension, if necessary. The Express Editions are free, of course, but are more limited. New projects build with VS2010 will target the .NET 4 Framework, so your end-users would need to have that installed. You could either have them install it using the web installer I linked above, or you could have your own installation program pre-install the framework.

The link to the keyword index addon is something that addresses the one significant negative in VS2010, which is the new help system that they’re using. It lacks an index, and the searching functionality leaves a lot to be desired (for example, there’s no ability to filter search results). This addon adds a panel that provides an index that integrates directly into the IDE, and is really something that should have been included with the product. One caveat is that this addon won’t work with the Express editions because they don’t support tool extensions. The Help Viewer power tool allows you to configure the VIsual Studio 2010 help to use a standalone viewer, rather than your browser. Keep in mind that if you want to make full use of the Help Viewer power tool, make sure that you install all of the Visual Studio documentation locally.

SocketTools developers who are currently using version 5.0 should download the free Service Pack 3 update that includes support for Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. For those developers who are using older versions of SocketTools, we recommend upgrading to the current version to ensure compatibility with the latest Windows operating systems and programming tools. Customers who have purchased the SocketTools Subscription can download the latest version using the download link provided when they purchased the subscription. More information about SocketTools 5.0 is available on our website at www.catalyst.com.

Likewise, we will continue to support the SocketTools ActiveX controls (as well as our other products) for Visual Basic 6.0 on Windows 2000, Windows XP and Vista. Although Microsoft’s support for the classic Visual Basic development environment is coming to an end, it will not impact developers insofar as SocketTools is concerned. This is the same policy that we have followed when Microsoft ended support for Visual C++ 6.0 in September 2005 and we have continued to support our Library Edition with that version of the compiler. It is recommended that you download Service Pack 6 for Visual Studio 6.0, which you can obtain from the Microsoft Download Center.

We understand that many companies and end-users continue to depend on applications created using Visual Basic 6.0. We will continue updating and improving the ActiveX controls in our products, and will continue to support development tools using ActiveX/COM. Please note that if you are using an earlier version of SocketTools, we recommend that you upgrade to the current version and continue to receive technical support and updates for the product. This is particularly true for those developers who are using the MFC-based ActiveX controls in SocketTools 3.6 or earlier versions. The current version of the ATL-based ActiveX controls offer superior performance, stability and improved features that can extend the life of legacy applications written in Visual Basic 6.0, helping to ensure that your software will continue to work correctly on the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 platforms.

Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2008 to MSDN subscribers, and this service pack also includes assemblies built targetting the .NET 3.5 Framework, as well as continued support for the 1.1 and 2.0 Frameworks. The examples included with all editions of SocketTools have also been updated for Visual Studio 2008. Please note that we will continue support both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2003 .NET. However, if you are currently developing on Windows Vista or are planning to upgrade from Windows XP, we do recommend that you upgrade to Visual Studio 2008. Most applications developed using earlier versions of Visual Studio can be migrated easily, and the interface to the SocketTools components remains the same regardless of which version of Visual Studio you’re using.

If you downloaded the SocketTools components for the Visual Studio “Orcas” beta release earlier this year, we recommended that you remove those pre-release components and uninstall your current copy of SocketTools prior to installing the SocketTools SP3 update. If you have an active SocketTools Subscription license, then these new components are available to you free as part of the current update to your subscription download.

Download Visual Studio 2008 Update

It is important to note that Visual Studio 2008 is currently a beta release, and should only be used for testing and evaluation purposes. We don’t recommended that you install it on your primary development system. Instead, you should either install it on a test system, or download Virtual PC 2007 and install it on a virtual machine.

The archive that you download contains a ReadMe file that explains the steps that you need to take to install the updated SocketTools assemblies. When Visual Studio 2008 is released, a new version of the SocketTools .NET installer will also be published which contains the current version of these assemblies and example programs. If you experience any problems or have any questions, please visit our technical support forums at forums.catalyst.com.

The second section of the tutorial walks you through creating your first Internet application, a web client that will download an HTML source page from a server. We decided to use this as the example because we felt it was simple and easy enough to understand without getting wrapped up in the details of building a more complex application. We’ve also included a companion video tutorial that demonstrates the same basic concepts.

Sometimes we’re asked why a developer should use SocketWrench rather than the classes or components which are already included with Visual Studio, or just using the Windows Sockets API directly. The tutorial answers that question by demonstrating how simple SocketWrench is to use. It’s a component that is useful for developers who are not experts in network programming, and yet it is flexible enough that it can be also be used with very complex applications.

The simplicity of SocketWrench is particularly evident when creating secure applications using SSL and TLS. Establishing a secure connection is a seamless process using the security functionality built into the SocketWrench. It automatically manages all of the complicated encryption and certificate validation, and doesn’t require you to understand any of the lower level implementation details. It also doesn’t require that you to use another class, like the SslStream class in .NET. As the tutorial demonstrates, switching between secure and standard (non-secure) connections only involves setting a single property to true or false.

Our goal with SocketWrench is to provide a component that makes it as easy as possible to Integrate Internet functionality in your own applications using code that is generally no more complex than opening, reading from and writing to a file. If you’re not familiar with Internet programming, we hope this tutorial helps minimize that initial learning curve and gets you started building your first Internet application.

» An Introduction to Internet Programming (PDF)
» SocketWrench Video Tutorial
» Download SocketWrench .NET for Visual Studio

Minimum System Requirements
The first thing to consider is the hardware that you’re currently using. Because developers tend to keep their systems relatively up-to-date, more than likely you’re in good shape. However, if your system is more than two years old, you’re going to want to check to make sure that it’s suitable for Vista. It’s recommended that you take a few minutes and run the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor which is a utility that will generate a compatibility report. Note that it only works with Windows XP, so if you’re using an older version of Windows then you’ll have to make the evaluation yourself.

Microsoft lists the minimum system requirements for Vista as a 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of memory, 40 GB of disk space and a DirectX 9 compatible video card with at least 128 MB of memory. However, keep in mind that is the minimum system requirements, and they really mean it. For a development system that’s actually usable, you’ll want at least a 2 GHz processor, 2 GB of memory, 120 GB of disk space (all of those development tools add up) and a DirectX 9 video card with at least 256 MB of memory. Keep in mind that the actual processor speed largely depends on the type; a system with the Core Duo is going to perform better than a P4 at a higher clock speed. You can also get by with a video card that has less memory, particularly if you don’t plan on running with the Aero Glass desktop. If you’re looking at multiple components to upgrade, then prioritize memory first. Vista is very aggressive with its memory use, so the more RAM it has and the faster it is, the better it will perform. I would point out that it is possible to install Vista on a lower-end system; however it’s not likely that you’ll be happy with the performance.

Windows Vista Version
If you’ve decided that your hardware is suitable for Vista, then you need to decide what version of the operating system you should upgrade to. Vista comes in several different versions, from Vista Home to Vista Ultimate. As a developer, you really just have two choices: Vista Business or Vista Ultimate. Vista Business is fairly close to Windows XP Professional in terms of the overall features. Vista Ultimate is basically a combination of the Business version and the Home Premium version which includes Windows Media Center. Vista Ultimate also includes the BitLocker disk encryption that’s in the Enterprise version. The bottom line is that Vista Ultimate is the best choice if your development system also doubles as your personal computer. If you’re only concerned about business features on a system at work, and aren’t interested in the built-in disk encryption, then Vista Business is all you’d really need.

Drivers and Development Tools
Now that you’ve decided on what version of Vista to install, you should take an inventory of your peripherals. In particular, you’re going to want to make sure that drivers are available for your video and audio adapters, as well as your printer. USB devices won’t be a problem in most cases, but multi-function printers may not have drivers available. If you’re not using integrated audio, you may also find that release drivers aren’t available for your audio card (the audio stack was changed significantly in Vista, and some vendors only have beta drivers available with partial functionality). You should also check for any BIOS updates, as well as any updates to the chipset that your system is using.

In most cases, the development tools that you use under Windows 2000 or Windows XP will work fine on Vista. However, there are some general issues to be aware of. The most significant is that Microsoft only officially supports Visual Studio 2005 on the platform. If you use Visual Studio 6.0 or Visual Studio .NET 2003, you can install them, but Microsoft will not provide any support for them on the platform. If upgrading to Visual Studio 2005 isn’t an option you’re not completely out of luck, but there will be some limitations. Most of those limitations revolve around one of two general areas, ActiveX and debugging. More specific information is available in our article Software Development on Windows Vista. Another thing to keep in mind is that if you’re currently using WinHelp for your help files, that format is no longer supported by Vista. Microsoft does plan on releasing a WinHelp viewer at some point, but you should make plans to migrate your help projects to HTML Help.

Upgrade or Clean Install
Finally, you have to make the decision as to whether you’re going to upgrade your system in-place, or perform a clean install. While an in-place upgrade is tempting, it’s not something that I’d recommend. Upgrading from an earlier version of Windows takes longer than a clean install, and it is much more likely that you’re going to encounter odd compatibility problems (or even system instability) when upgrading. Although re-installing all of the development tools and utilities is certainly no fun, it will pay off in the long run. Make sure you have a good backup of your source code and data, as well as any software that you’ve downloaded and/or purchased online. If you don’t have an external USB drive, now would be a good time to invest in one. It’ll make the re-installation process much easier in the long run, as well as provide the best way to backup your complete system. Once you’ve started the installation the process is largely automated, so there’s little for you to do but sit back and relax.

Visual Studio 2005
If you use Visual Studio 2005 and are interested in moving to Vista as your development platform, you’re in good shape. Microsoft supports Visual Studio 2005 on Vista, and Service Pack 1 was released on December 19th, 2006. If you previously installed the beta version of the service pack, make sure that you uninstall it first, before attempting to install the released version or you may encounter errors during the installation.

It’s also recommended that you download the .NET Framework 3.0 and Windows SDK for Vista, which is the latest version of the Platform SDK. One note of caution for developers who are also using older versions of Visual Studio: Do not replace your previous Platform SDK with the new Windows SDK, particularly if you’re still using Visual C++ 6.0. Also, if you use third-party plug-ins for Visual Studio, check with the vendor to make sure that they support Vista.

Visual Studio .NET 2003
If you are currently using Visual Studio .NET 2003, you can install it under Vista; however, it is not supported by Microsoft and they don’t recommend that you use Vista as your development platform. Under most circumstances, you will probably find that Visual Studio .NET 2003 will work correctly. We have it installed on Vista, primarily for testing purposes, and are able to edit, compile and debug programs locally. Where you can run into problems is with remote debugging and COM interop.

If you want to try using VS.NET 2003 with Vista, make sure that you download and install Service Pack 1 if you haven’t already. If you’re using third-party plug-ins, make sure that they’re still supported. Because Microsoft won’t support older versions of Visual Studio on Vista, some vendors may choose to only support Visual Studio 2005 on the platform.

Visual Studio 6.0
Although the number of developers using Visual Studio 6.0 has steadily declined over the past several years, there are still a fairly large number of companies that continue to use Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual C++ 6.0. As with Visual Studio .NET 2003, Visual Studio 6.0 is not supported under Windows Vista and if you cannot upgrade to Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft recommends that you continue to use Windows XP as your development platform. There is some good news, and that is Microsoft will continue to provide support for the Visual Basic 6.0 runtime in Vista. This means that programs you develop using Visual Basic 6.0 will continue to run and be fully supported.

If you’re using Visual C++ 6.0, you’ll find that for the most part you’ll be able to use the IDE and compiler without a problem. However, remote debugging and using ActiveX controls can present problems. For example, adding components to your project (through the Project | Add to Project | Components and Controls menu option) may not work correctly.

Borland Developer Studio 2006
Borland has promised support for Vista and the .NET 2.0 Framework in 2007, however the current version of Borland Developer Studio is not supported under Vista and they recommend that you continue to use Windows XP as your development platform. Because Borland only supports version 1.1, developers won’t be able to take advantage of some of the new features included with Vista and the .NET 3.0 Framework until the new version of BDS is released.

Third-Party Languages
There are a large number of third-party languages available for Windows, and many of them will continue to work under Vista without a problem. The two key areas that are most likely to encounter problems are debugging and support for ActiveX controls or Automation. In some cases it may be required to run them with elevated privileges, either from the command line or from within their IDE. If you experience problems, select the shortcut to the program from the Start menu and right-click on it. Select Properties and the property sheet for the shortcut will be displayed. Next, click on the Compatibility tab and make one or more of the following changes:

1. Enable compatibility mode and select Windows XP (Service Pack 2). If the compiler is performing operating system version checks, it will continue to think that it’s running under XP. If this doesn’t work, try setting compatibility to Windows 2000.

2. Check the option to disable visual themes. This will disable theme support in the application, and is a good choice if you’re noticing problems with menus or buttons not being drawn correctly.

3. Check the option to disable desktop composition. This will disable the advanced features in the Aero Glass interface, such as transparency. This is a good choice if you notice problems with windows not being drawn correctly. For example, if the IDE includes visual tools to create and edit forms or dialogs, you may find that controls are drawn very slowly or aren’t redrawn in the correct position. Disabling this feature will often correct the problem, however it will force the entire desktop (not just the application) to disable the Aero UI until the program terminates.

4. Check the option to run the program as an administrator. This will allow the IDE or compiler to run with elevated privileges. If you are experiencing problems debugging your application or using third-party ActiveX controls, enabling this option may correct the problem. Note that if this option is enabled, you will be given a UAC prompt every time that you run it. You should only enable this option for programs that you trust because they will be given full, unrestricted access to the operating system.