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Most frequently requested Visual Studio resources

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In this post, I share some of my favourite and most requested links for Visual Studio resources.

I taught developer courses for a number of years, and there were certain questions and requests that came up on a regular basis. In this post, I’ve compiled some of the most common requests I received from my students and listed the resources I shared. When you are trying to find the syntax for a specific method, or a code example for a particular API, searching the internet works great! But sometimes more generic information can be harder to find in a sea of websites, blogs, and articles. I hope these resources will help both new and experienced users of Visual Studio to help you get started or get more out of the tool you already have.

What edition should I buy?

I always have trouble finding this when I want it so here is the Visual Studio 2010 Comparison

What can I get for free?

How can Visual Studio help with testing or aspects other than coding?

We often think of Visual Studio as just a tool to help us code, but it can help with the whole application lifecycle. There are some good intros to using Visual Studio as an ALM tool here.

Microsoft Test Manager was added to Visual Studio and helps track test plans, test cases and more on your project. Learn more about how to get started with Test Manager here.

I’ve been working with Visual Studio for a while, how do I find those “hidden” features?

Are there labs somewhere I can launch to try out the tool and features?

  • We have some Visual Studio 2010 labs you can launch online at Techdays Canada
  • The Visual Studio team has also made a Virtual Machine and a series of Visual Studio 11 labs you can download and try.

Where can I learn C#? VB .NET? F#?

I want to get certified on Web? Windows? Where do I start?

Check out this blog series that covers how to figure out what certification to take, the exams required, and some tips on how to prepare for the exam itself.

Looking for anything else, I suggest you check out...

MSDN Learning Visual Studio – helpful resources to help beginners and seasoned professionals build their skills.

Microsoft Learning Training Catalog – helps you find both online and in person training resources

Do you have any great resources or tips to share? Join us on the Canadian Developer Connection on LinkedIn and share it with the Canadian developer community!