How Do I in General Development

Use this topic to find information about how to use Visual Studio to develop applications. In particular, you can learn how to use some of the tools in the integrated development environment (IDE). You can also find introductory information about how to use data. 

• Web Application Development

• Client Application Development

• Office Application Development

• Mobile Device Application Development

• Working with Data

• Application Development Tools

Categories

Web Application Development

• Creating Your First Visual Basic Program
  Learn how to create a Web-browsing program by using Visual Basic.

• Walkthrough: Creating a New ASP.NET Web Site
  Learn how to create a file system Web site and a single-file ASP.NET page, and also how to run pages by using the ASP.NET Development Server together with Visual Web Developer.

• Walkthrough: Creating an AJAX-Enabled Data Application
  Learn how to create an AJAX-enabled Web application that can work as a to-do list or task list.

• How to: Define a Windows Communication Foundation Service Contract
  Learn how to define the collection and structure of messages that are required to access the operations offered by a WCF service.

• How to: Create a Windows Communication Foundation Client
  Learn how to use the Service Model Metadata Utility Tool (Svcutil.exe) to create a WCF client.

• Tutorial: Create a Workflow Application with ASP.NET
  Learn how to host a Windows Workflow Foundation application in ASP.NET.

• MSDN Silverlight Dev Center
  Learn more about Silverlight by going through the latest samples.

Client Application Development

• Designing a User Interface for a WPF Application (Visual Basic)
  Learn how to create a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application and add controls in Visual Basic.

• Walkthrough: Creating a Simple Windows Form
  Learn how to build and run a Windows form in Visual Basic, Visual C#, or Visual C++.

• How to: Create a C# Windows Forms Application
  Learn how to create a basic Web browser by using Visual C#.

• How to: Create a C# WPF Application
  Learn how to create your own Ink application, which enables you to draw pictures.

• Creating a Windows Forms Application By Using the .NET Framework (C+)
  Learn how to create a basic date selection application by using C++ and the .NET Framework.

• Tutorial: Hosting the Windows Workflow Designer
  Learn how to create a Windows Forms-based application that hosts the Windows Workflow Foundation Designer.

Office Application Development

• Content Controls Sample
  Learn how to work with a table that contains content controls in the second column, and brief descriptions for each content control in the first column.

• PowerPoint Deck Generator Sample
  Learn how to create a first draft of a Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 presentation from a Word document, without having to copy and paste information from your Word outline into PowerPoint.

• Excel Dynamic Controls Sample
  Learn how to how to add and remove Windows Forms controls and host controls.

• Accessing Data Sample
  Learn how to read data from a data source and display it in a Microsoft Office Excel 2007 worksheet or Microsoft Office Word 2007 document.

• Outlook Form Region RSS Reader Sample
  Learn how you can use Microsoft Office Outlook form regions to display the full content of articles from an RSS feed.

• Walkthrough: Inserting Text into a Document from an Actions Pane
  Learn how create an actions pane that contains two controls that enable users to enter text in the actions pane and populate the document with that text.

Mobile Device Application Development

• Walkthrough: Creating Windows Forms Applications for a Device
  Learn how to create, by using Visual Basic or Visual C#, a simple Hello World application that can run on a Pocket PC.

• Walkthrough: Authoring User Controls for Devices
  Learn how to create a control library and then add a control to the library by using Visual Basic or Visual C#.

• How to: Create Device Applications Using Visual Basic or Visual C#
  Learn how to create a device application project in Visual Studio.

• How to: Create a New Visual C++ Device Project
  Learn how to create a device project that uses Visual C++.

• Walkthrough: Packaging a Smart Device Solution for Deployment
  Learn how to create a .cab file for your application that can then be deployed to a smart device.

Working with Data

• Walkthrough: Creating a Simple Data Application
  Learn how to display data from a database on a Windows Form.

• Walkthrough: Connecting to Data in a Database
  Learn how to connect an application to data in the Northwind sample database.

• Walkthrough: Connecting to Data in a SQL Server Express Database
  Learn how to connect an application to data in a SQL Server Express database.

• Walkthrough: Connecting to Data in a Web Service
  Learn how to connect an application to a Google Web service.

• How to: Create a LINQ Project
  Learn how to reference the correct namespaces and directives that are required to enable LINQ functionality.

• Walkthrough: Writing Queries in C# (LINQ)
  Learn how to create a basic LINQ query in C#.

• Walkthrough: Writing Queries in Visual Basic
  Learn how to create a basic LINQ query in Visual Basic.

• How to: Create a LINQ to DataSet Project In Visual Studio
  Learn how to reference the correct namespaces or directives that are required to enable LINQ to DataSet.

• Walkthrough: Simple Object Model and Query (Visual Basic) (LINQ to SQL)
  Learn how to create an entity class that models the Customers table in the sample Northwind database and then create a simple query by using Visual Basic.

• Walkthrough: Simple Object Model and Query (C#) (LINQ to SQL)
  Learn how to create an entity class that models the Customers table in the sample Northwind database and then create a simple query by using Visual C#.

Application Development Tools

• Code Editing Essentials
  Learn about the basic features that are available in all editors in the IDE.

• How to: Outline and Hide Code
  Learn how to collapse sections of code.

• How to: Set General Editor Options
  Learn how to set preferences for statement completion, word wrap, line numbers, and more.

• How to: Prepare and Manage Builds
  Learn how to build individual projects or whole solutions and how to create batch builds, among other techniques.

• How to: Set Debug and Release Configurations
  Learn how to specify different release configurations for the debug and release versions of your application.

• Create and Display Object Test Bench Objects
  Learn how to test simple classes and their methods.

• How to: Create or Add Deployment Projects
  Learn how to include deployment projects in your solution.

• How to: Create or Add a Cab Project
  Learn how to create .cab files to download components to a Web browser.

• How to: Publish a ClickOnce Application
  Learn how to publish ClickOnce applications to the Web, a file share, a CD, or a DVD.

Additional How Do I topics

Topic	Location
How Do I in Visual Web Developer	Building ASP .NET Web Applications in Visual Studio
How Do I in Visual Web Developer	Building ASP .NET Web Applications in Visual Studio
How Do I in Smart Device Development	Smart Device Projects

See Also

Concepts

Visual Studio Guided Tour

What's New in Visual Studio 2008