

It is recommended that the MSDN documentation (2nd selection in the screenshot to the right) be installed along with Visual Studio. NET framework is used by many programs today, I typically install it well before ever installing Visual Studio. It really does not matter what order you install these packages in. NET 3.5 and Visual Studio both require a lot of time (Will update this when I do fresh installs). Keep in mind that Visual Studio 2008 Professional is about 3.4 GB, so it would be best to start the download and then go off to do something else for a while. As with most development related software installation of these packages (and depending on your system/domain security policy, downloading too) requires at least Local Administrator privileges. If you have not already, download the 90 day trial of Visual Studio 2008 Professional and. In this course we will be exploring installation, initialization, and basic use of the IDE for the purpose of writing VB.NET software. It supports languages by means of language services, which allow any programming language to be supported (to varying degrees) by the code editor and debugger, provided a language-specific service has been authored. Visual Studio functions as the code editing area, form designer, code validator, compiler and library browser for a software development project.

It allows plug-ins to be added that enhance the functionality at almost every level - including adding support for source control systems (like Subversion and Visual SourceSafe) to adding new toolsets like editors and visual designers for domain-specific languages or toolsets for other aspects of the software development lifecycle (like the Team Foundation Server client: Team Explorer). Other built-in tools include a forms designer for building GUI applications, web designer, class designer, and database schema designer. The integrated debugger works both as a source-level debugger and a machine-level debugger. Visual Studio includes a code editor supporting IntelliSense as well as code refactoring. NET Compact Framework and Microsoft Silverlight. It can be used to develop console and graphical user interface applications along with Windows Forms applications, web sites, web applications, and web services in both native code together with managed code for all platforms supported by Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows CE. Microsoft Visual Studio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) from Microsoft. Pulled verbatim from w:Microsoft Visual Studio
