Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is 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, .NET Framework, .NET Compact Framework and Microsoft Silverlight.
Visual Studio supports different programming languages by means of language services, which allow the code editor and debugger to support (to varying degrees) nearly any programming language, provided a language-specific service exists. Built-in languages include C/C++ (via Visual C++), VB.NET (via Visual Basic .NET), C# (via Visual C#), and F# (as of Visual Studio 2010[2]). Support for other languages such asM, Python, and Ruby among others is available via language services installed separately. It also supportsXML/XSLT, HTML/XHTML, JavaScript and CSS. Individual language-specific versions of Visual Studio also exist which provide more limited language services to the user: Microsoft Visual Basic, Visual J#, Visual C#, and Visual C++.
Microsoft provides "Express" editions of its Visual Studio 2010 components Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++, and Visual Web Developer at no cost. Visual Studio 2010, 2008 and 2005 Professional Editions, along with language-specific versions (Visual Basic, C++, C#, J#) of Visual Studio Express 2010 are available for free to students as downloads via Microsoft's DreamSpark program.
Version history
Prior to Visual Studio Version 4.0 there were Visual Basic 3, Visual C++, Visual FoxPro and Source Safe as separate products.
Visual Studio 97
Microsoft first released Visual Studio (codenamed Boston, for the city of the same name, thus beginning the VS codenames related to places)[55] in 1997, bundling many of its programming tools together for the first time. Visual Studio 97 came in two editions: Visual Studio Professional and Visual Studio Enterprise, both on two CDs. It included Visual Basic 5.0, Visual C++ 5.0 -primarily for Windows programming; Visual J++ 1.1 for Java programming; Visual FoxPro 5.0 for database programming. It introduced Visual InterDev for creating dynamically generated web sites using Active Server Pages.[citation needed] There were two companion CDs that contained the Microsoft Developer Network library.
Visual Studio 97 was Microsoft's first attempt at using the same development environment for multiple languages. Visual C++, Visual J++, InterDev, and the MSDN Library had all been using same 'environment', called Developer Studio.[56] Visual Basic and Visual FoxPro used separate environments.
VIsual Studio 97 had further low budget CD versions targeting only one specific programming language at a time, such as Visual C++ v5, or Visual Basic v5.0. Each single programming language included the same Environment and lacked MSDN.
Visual Studio 6.0 (1998)
Main article: Visual Basic 6
The next version, version 6.0 (codenamed Aspen, after the ski resort in Colorado),[citation needed] was released in June 1998 and is the last version to run on the Windows 9x platform. Each version of each language in part also settled to v6.0, including Visual J++ which was prior v1.1, and Visual InterDev at the 1st release. The v6 edition of Microsoft was the core environment for the next four releases to provide programmers with an integrated look-a-like platform. This led Microsoft to transition the development on the platform independent .NET Framework.
Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles.
Visual Studio 6.0 was the last version to include the COM-based version of plain Visual Basic language; subsequent 2002 version (in 'Visual Studio 2002' package) included Basic language using the .NET platform. It did not include Visual J++, which Microsoft removed as part of a settlement with Sun Microsystems that required Microsoft Internet Explorer to not provide support for the Silicon Valley headquartered Sun company Java Virtual Machine Environment.
Visual Basic, Visual C++, and Visual FoxPro had same IDE Environment, while Visual J++ and Visual InterDev shared a common new environment.This new IDE was designed with extensibility in mind, and would go on (after several internal revisions) to become the core development environment in future releases starting Visual Studio .NET. Visual Studio 6.0 was the last version to include Visual FoxPro, and Visual Fortran.
Visual Studio 6.0 came in two editions: Professional and Enterprise.The Enterprise edition contained extra features not found in Professional edition, including:
Application Performance Explorer
Automation Manager
Microsoft Visual Modeler
RemAuto Connection Manager[citation needed]
Visual Studio Analyzer
Visual Studio .NET (2002)
The Microsoft Visual Studio .NET logo.
Microsoft released Visual Studio .NET, codenamed Rainier (for Washington's Mount Rainier), in February 2002 (the beta version was released via Microsoft Developer Network in 2001). The biggest change was the introduction of a managed code development environment using the .NET Framework. Programs developed using .NET are not compiled to machine language (like C++ is, for example) but instead to a format called Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) or Common Intermediate Language (CIL). When an MSIL application executes, it is compiled while being executed into the appropriate machine language for the platform it is being executed on, thereby making code portable across several platforms. Programs compiled into MSIL can be executed only on platforms which have an implementation of Common Language Infrastructure. It is possible to run MSIL programs in Linux or Mac OS X using non-Microsoft .NET implementations like Mono and DotGNU.
This was the first version of Visual Studio to require an NT-based Windows platform. The installer enforces this requirement.
Visual Studio .NET 2002 shipped in four editions: Academic, Professional, Enterprise Developer, and Enterprise Architect. Microsoft introduced C# (C-sharp), a new programming language, that targets .NET. It also introduced the successor to Visual J++ called Visual J#. Visual J# programs use Java's language-syntax. However, unlike Visual J++ programs, Visual J# programs can only target the .NET Framework, not the Java Virtual Machine that all other Java tools target.
Visual Basic changed drastically to fit the new framework, and the new version was called Visual Basic .NET. Microsoft also added extensions to C++, called Managed Extensions for C++, so that C++ programmers could create .NET programs.
Visual Studio .NET can produce applications targeting Windows (using the Windows Forms, part of the .NET Framework), the Web (using ASP.NET and Web Services) and, with an add-in, portable devices (using the .NET Compact Framework).
The Visual Studio .NET environment was rewritten to partially use .NET. All languages are versions of Visual Studio, it has a cleaner interface and greater cohesiveness.[citation needed] It is also more customizable with tool windows that automatically hide when not in use. While Visual FoxPro 7 started out as part of Visual Studio 7, and early VS betas allowed debugging inside VFP-based DLLs, it was removed before release to follow its own development track.[citation needed]
The internal version number of Visual Studio .NET is version 7.0. Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio .NET 2002 in March, 2005.
Visual Studio .NET 2003
The Visual Studio .NET 2003 code editor and WinForms Designer Window in VB.NET
In April 2003, Microsoft introduced a minor upgrade to Visual Studio .NET called Visual Studio .NET 2003, codenamed Everett (for the city of the same name). It includes an upgrade to the .NET Framework, version 1.1, and is the first release to support developing programs for mobile devices, using ASP.NET or the .NET Compact Framework. The Visual C++ compiler's standards-compliance improved, especially in the area of partial template specialization. Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 is a free version of the same C++ compiler shipped with Visual Studio .NET 2003 without the IDE, though As of 2010 it is no longer available and the Express Editions have superseded it. The internal version number of Visual Studio .NET 2003 is version 7.1 while the file format version is 8.0.
Visual Studio .NET 2003 shipped in four editions: Academic, Professional, Enterprise Developer, and Enterprise Architect. The Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect edition includes an implementation of Microsoft Visio 2002's modeling technologies, including tools for creating Unified Modeling Language-based visual representations of an application's architecture, and a powerful Object-Role Modeling (ORM) and logical database-modeling solution. "Enterprise Templates" were also introduced, to help larger development teams standardize coding styles and enforce policies around component usage and property settings.
Service Pack 1 was released September 13, 2006.
Visual Studio 2005
Visual Studio 2005, codenamed Whidbey (a reference to Whidbey Island in Puget Sound), was released online in October 2005 and to retail stores a few weeks later. Microsoft removed the ".NET" moniker from Visual Studio 2005 (as well as every other product with .NET in its name), but it still primarily targets the .NET Framework, which was upgraded to version 2.0. It is the last version available for Windows 2000 and also the last version to be able to target Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows NT 4.0 for C++ applications.
Visual Studio 2005's internal version number is 8.0 while the file format version is 9.0.[61] Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2005 on 14 December 2006.An additional update for Service Pack 1 that offers Windows Vista compatibility was made available on 3 June 2007.
Visual Studio 2005 was upgraded to support all the new features introduced in .NET Framework 2.0, including generics and ASP.NET 2.0. The IntelliSense feature in Visual Studio was upgraded for generics and new project types were added to support ASP.NET web services. Visual Studio 2005 also includes a local web server, separate from IIS, that can host ASP.NET applications during development and testing. It also supports all SQL Server 2005 databases. Database designers were upgraded to support the ADO.NET 2.0, which is included with .NET Framework 2.0. C++ also got a similar upgrade with the addition of C++/CLI which is slated to replace the use of Managed C++.Other new features of Visual Studio 2005 include the "Deployment Designer" which allows application designs to be validated before deployments, an improved environment for web publishing when combined with ASP.NET 2.0 and load testing to see application performance under various sorts of user loads. Starting with the 2005 edition, Visual Studio also added extensive 64-bit support. While the host development environment itself is only available as a 32-bit application, Visual C++ 2005 supports compiling for x86-64 (AMD64 and Intel 64) as well as IA-64 (Itanium).The Platform SDK included 64-bit compilers and 64-bit versions of the libraries.
Microsoft also announced Visual Studio Tools for Applications as the successor to Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and VSA (Visual Studio for Applications). VSTA 1.0 was released to manufacturing along with Office 2007. It is included with Office 2007 and is also part of the Visual Studio 2005 SDK. VSTA consists of a customized IDE, based on the Visual Studio 2005 IDE, and a runtime that can be embedded in applications to expose its features via the .NET object model. Office 2007 applications continue to integrate with VBA, except for InfoPath 2007 which integrates with VSTA. Version 2.0 of VSTA ( based on Visual Studio 2008) was released in April, 2008. It is significantly different from the first version, including features such as dynamic programming and support for WPF, WCF, WF, LINQ, and .NET 3.5 Framework.
Visual Studio 2008
Visual Studio 2008,and Visual Studio Team System 2008 codenamed Orcas (a reference to Orcas Island, also an island in Puget Sound, like Whidbey for the previous 2005 release), were released to MSDN subscribers on 19 November 2007 alongside .NET Framework 3.5. The source code for the Visual Studio 2008 IDE is available under a shared source license to some of Microsoft's partners and ISVs. Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2008 on 11 August 2008. The internal version number of Visual Studio 2008 is version 9.0 while the file format version is 10.0. Visual Studio 2008 is the last version to support targeting Windows 2000 for C++ applications.
Visual Studio 2008 is focused on development of Windows Vista, 2007 Office system, and Web applications. For visual design, a new Windows Presentation Foundation visual designer and a new HTML/CSS editor influenced by Microsoft Expression Web are included. J# is not included. Visual Studio 2008 requires .NET 3.5 Framework and by default configures compiled assemblies to run on .NET Framework 3.5, but it also supports multi-targeting which lets the developers choose which version of the .NET Framework (out of 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, Silverlight CoreCLR or .NET Compact Framework) the assembly runs on. Visual Studio 2008 also includes new code analysis tools, including the new Code Metrics tool (only in Team Edition and Team Suite Edition).For Visual C++, Visual Studio adds a new version of Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC 9.0) that adds support for the visual styles and UI controls introduced with Windows Vista. For native and managed code interoperability, Visual C++ introduces the STL/CLR, which is a port of the C++ Standard Template Library (STL) containers and algorithms to managed code. STL/CLR defines STL-like containers, iterators and algorithms that work on C++/CLI managed objects.
Visual Studio 2008 features include an XAML-based designer (codenamed Cider), workflow designer, LINQ to SQL designer (for defining the type mappings and object encapsulation for SQL Server data), XSLT debugger, JavaScript Intellisense support, JavaScript Debugging support, support for UAC manifests, a concurrent build system, among others. It ships with an enhanced set of UI widgets, both for Windows Forms and WPF. It also includes a multithreaded build engine (MSBuild) to compile multiple source files (and build the executable file) in a project across multiple threads simultaneously. It also includes support for compiling PNG compressed icon resources introduced in Windows Vista. An updated XML Schema designer will ship separately some time after the release of Visual Studio 2008.
The Visual Studio debugger includes features targeting easier debugging of multi-threaded applications. In debugging mode, in the Threads window, which lists all the threads, hovering over a thread will display the stack trace of that thread in tooltips.The threads can directly be named and flagged for easier identification from that window itself. In addition, in the code window, along with indicating the location of the currently executing instruction in the current thread, the currently executing instructions in other threads are also pointed out. The Visual Studio debugger supports integrated debugging of the .NET 3.5 Framework Base Class Library (BCL) which can dynamically download the BCL source code and debug symbols and allow stepping into the BCL source during debugging. As of 2010 a limited subset of the BCL source is available, with more library support planned for later.
Visual Studio 2010
On April 12, 2010, Microsoft released Visual Studio 2010, codenamed Dev10, and .NET Framework 4.
Visual Studio 2010 features a new UI developed using WPF
Visual Studio 2010 IDE has been redesigned which, according to Microsoft, clears the UI organization and "reduces clutter and complexity." The new IDE better supports multiple document windows and floating tool windows,while offering better multi-monitor support. The IDE shell has been rewritten using the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), whereas the internals have been redesigned using Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) that offers more extensibility points than previous versions of the IDE that enabled add-ins to modify the behavior of the IDE.
The new multi-paradigm ML-variant F# forms part of Visual Studio 2010; as do M, the textual modeling language, and Quadrant, the visual model designer, which are a part of the Oslo initiative.
Visual Studio 2010 comes with .NET Framework 4 and supports developing applications targeting Windows 7.It supports IBM DB2 and Oracle databases, in addition to Microsoft SQL Server. It has integrated support for developing Microsoft Silverlight applications, including an interactive designer. Visual Studio 2010 offers several tools to make parallel programming simpler: in addition to the Parallel Extensions for the .NET Framework and the Parallel Patterns Library for native code, Visual Studio 2010 includes tools for debugging parallel applications. The new tools allow the visualization of parallel Tasks and their runtime stacks. Tools for profiling parallel applications can be used for visualization of thread wait-times and thread migrations across processor cores.Intel and Microsoft have jointly pledged support for a new Concurrency Runtime in Visual Studio 2010 and Intel has launched parallelism support in Parallel Studio as an add-on for Visual Studio.
The Visual Studio 2010 code editor now highlights references; whenever a symbol is selected, all other usages of the symbol are highlighted. It also offers a Quick Search feature to incrementally search across all symbols in C++, C# and VB.NET projects. Quick Search supports substring matches and camelCase searches. The Call Hierarchy feature allows the developer to see all the methods that are called from a current method as well as the methods that call the current one. IntelliSense in Visual Studio supports a consume-first mode which developers can opt into. In this mode, IntelliSense will not auto-complete identifiers; this allows the developer to use undefined identifiers (like variable or method names) and define those later. Visual Studio 2010 can also help in this by automatically defining them, if it can infer their types from usage.
Visual Studio 2010 features a new Help System replacing the MSDN Library viewer. The Help System is no longer based on Microsoft Help 2 and does not use Microsoft Document Explorer. Dynamic help containing links to related help topics based on where the developer was in the IDE has been removed in the shipping product, but can be added back using a download from Microsoft.
Visual Studio 2010 no longer supports development for Windows Mobile prior to Windows Phone 7.
Visual Studio Ultimate 2010
Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 (formerly Team System or Team Suite), codenamed Rosario. It includes new modeling tools, such as the Architecture Explorer, which graphically displays projects and classes and the relationships between them. It supports UML activity diagram, component diagram, (logical) class diagram, sequence diagram, and use case diagram. Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 also includes Test Impact Analysis which provides hints on which test cases are impacted by modifications to the source code, without actually running the test cases. This speeds up testing by avoiding running unnecessary test cases.
Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 also includes a Historical Debugger for managed code called IntelliTrace. Unlike the current debugger, that records only the currently-active stack, IntelliTrace records all events like prior function calls, method parameters, events, exceptions etc. This allows the code execution to be rewound in case a breakpoint wasn't set where the error occurred. IntelliTrace will cause the application to run slower than the current debugger, and will use more memory as additional data needs to be recorded. Microsoft allows configuration of how much data should be recorded, in effect allowing developers to balance speed of execution and resource usage. The Lab Management component of Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 uses virtualization to create a similar execution environment for testers and developers. The virtual machines are tagged with checkpoints which can later be investigated for issues, as well as to reproduce the issue. Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 also includes the capability to record test runs that capture the specific state of the operating environment as well as the precise steps used to run the test. These steps can then be played back to reproduce issues.
| Product name | .NET Framework version | Release date | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio | N/A | Spring 1995 | ||
| Visual Studio 97 | N/A | 1997 | ||
| Visual Studio 6.0 | N/A | 1998-06 | ||
| Visual Studio .NET (2002) | 1.0 | 2002-02-13 | ||
| Visual Studio .NET 2003 | 1.1 | 2003-04-24 | ||
| Visual Studio 2005 | 2.0 | 2005-11-07 | ||
| Visual Studio 2008 | 3.5 | 2007-11-19 | ||
| Visual Studio 2010 /Ultimate 2010 | 4.0 | 2010-04-12 |
Microsoft first released Visual Studio (codenamed Boston, for the city of the same name, thus beginning the VS codenames related to places)[55] in 1997, bundling many of its programming tools together for the first time. Visual Studio 97 came in two editions: Visual Studio Professional and Visual Studio Enterprise, both on two CDs. It included Visual Basic 5.0, Visual C++ 5.0 -primarily for Windows programming; Visual J++ 1.1 for Java programming; Visual FoxPro 5.0 for database programming. It introduced Visual InterDev for creating dynamically generated web sites using Active Server Pages.[citation needed] There were two companion CDs that contained the Microsoft Developer Network library.
Visual Studio 97 was Microsoft's first attempt at using the same development environment for multiple languages. Visual C++, Visual J++, InterDev, and the MSDN Library had all been using same 'environment', called Developer Studio.[56] Visual Basic and Visual FoxPro used separate environments.
VIsual Studio 97 had further low budget CD versions targeting only one specific programming language at a time, such as Visual C++ v5, or Visual Basic v5.0. Each single programming language included the same Environment and lacked MSDN.
Visual Studio 6.0 (1998)
Main article: Visual Basic 6
The next version, version 6.0 (codenamed Aspen, after the ski resort in Colorado),[citation needed] was released in June 1998 and is the last version to run on the Windows 9x platform. Each version of each language in part also settled to v6.0, including Visual J++ which was prior v1.1, and Visual InterDev at the 1st release. The v6 edition of Microsoft was the core environment for the next four releases to provide programmers with an integrated look-a-like platform. This led Microsoft to transition the development on the platform independent .NET Framework.
Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles.
Visual Studio 6.0 was the last version to include the COM-based version of plain Visual Basic language; subsequent 2002 version (in 'Visual Studio 2002' package) included Basic language using the .NET platform. It did not include Visual J++, which Microsoft removed as part of a settlement with Sun Microsystems that required Microsoft Internet Explorer to not provide support for the Silicon Valley headquartered Sun company Java Virtual Machine Environment.
Visual Basic, Visual C++, and Visual FoxPro had same IDE Environment, while Visual J++ and Visual InterDev shared a common new environment.This new IDE was designed with extensibility in mind, and would go on (after several internal revisions) to become the core development environment in future releases starting Visual Studio .NET. Visual Studio 6.0 was the last version to include Visual FoxPro, and Visual Fortran.
Visual Studio 6.0 came in two editions: Professional and Enterprise.The Enterprise edition contained extra features not found in Professional edition, including:
Application Performance Explorer
Automation Manager
Microsoft Visual Modeler
RemAuto Connection Manager[citation needed]
Visual Studio Analyzer
Visual Studio .NET (2002)
The Microsoft Visual Studio .NET logo.
Microsoft released Visual Studio .NET, codenamed Rainier (for Washington's Mount Rainier), in February 2002 (the beta version was released via Microsoft Developer Network in 2001). The biggest change was the introduction of a managed code development environment using the .NET Framework. Programs developed using .NET are not compiled to machine language (like C++ is, for example) but instead to a format called Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) or Common Intermediate Language (CIL). When an MSIL application executes, it is compiled while being executed into the appropriate machine language for the platform it is being executed on, thereby making code portable across several platforms. Programs compiled into MSIL can be executed only on platforms which have an implementation of Common Language Infrastructure. It is possible to run MSIL programs in Linux or Mac OS X using non-Microsoft .NET implementations like Mono and DotGNU.
This was the first version of Visual Studio to require an NT-based Windows platform. The installer enforces this requirement.
Visual Studio .NET 2002 shipped in four editions: Academic, Professional, Enterprise Developer, and Enterprise Architect. Microsoft introduced C# (C-sharp), a new programming language, that targets .NET. It also introduced the successor to Visual J++ called Visual J#. Visual J# programs use Java's language-syntax. However, unlike Visual J++ programs, Visual J# programs can only target the .NET Framework, not the Java Virtual Machine that all other Java tools target.
Visual Basic changed drastically to fit the new framework, and the new version was called Visual Basic .NET. Microsoft also added extensions to C++, called Managed Extensions for C++, so that C++ programmers could create .NET programs.
Visual Studio .NET can produce applications targeting Windows (using the Windows Forms, part of the .NET Framework), the Web (using ASP.NET and Web Services) and, with an add-in, portable devices (using the .NET Compact Framework).
The Visual Studio .NET environment was rewritten to partially use .NET. All languages are versions of Visual Studio, it has a cleaner interface and greater cohesiveness.[citation needed] It is also more customizable with tool windows that automatically hide when not in use. While Visual FoxPro 7 started out as part of Visual Studio 7, and early VS betas allowed debugging inside VFP-based DLLs, it was removed before release to follow its own development track.[citation needed]
The internal version number of Visual Studio .NET is version 7.0. Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio .NET 2002 in March, 2005.
Visual Studio .NET 2003
The Visual Studio .NET 2003 code editor and WinForms Designer Window in VB.NET
In April 2003, Microsoft introduced a minor upgrade to Visual Studio .NET called Visual Studio .NET 2003, codenamed Everett (for the city of the same name). It includes an upgrade to the .NET Framework, version 1.1, and is the first release to support developing programs for mobile devices, using ASP.NET or the .NET Compact Framework. The Visual C++ compiler's standards-compliance improved, especially in the area of partial template specialization. Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 is a free version of the same C++ compiler shipped with Visual Studio .NET 2003 without the IDE, though As of 2010 it is no longer available and the Express Editions have superseded it. The internal version number of Visual Studio .NET 2003 is version 7.1 while the file format version is 8.0.
Visual Studio .NET 2003 shipped in four editions: Academic, Professional, Enterprise Developer, and Enterprise Architect. The Visual Studio .NET 2003 Enterprise Architect edition includes an implementation of Microsoft Visio 2002's modeling technologies, including tools for creating Unified Modeling Language-based visual representations of an application's architecture, and a powerful Object-Role Modeling (ORM) and logical database-modeling solution. "Enterprise Templates" were also introduced, to help larger development teams standardize coding styles and enforce policies around component usage and property settings.
Service Pack 1 was released September 13, 2006.
Visual Studio 2005
Visual Studio 2005, codenamed Whidbey (a reference to Whidbey Island in Puget Sound), was released online in October 2005 and to retail stores a few weeks later. Microsoft removed the ".NET" moniker from Visual Studio 2005 (as well as every other product with .NET in its name), but it still primarily targets the .NET Framework, which was upgraded to version 2.0. It is the last version available for Windows 2000 and also the last version to be able to target Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows NT 4.0 for C++ applications.
Visual Studio 2005's internal version number is 8.0 while the file format version is 9.0.[61] Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2005 on 14 December 2006.An additional update for Service Pack 1 that offers Windows Vista compatibility was made available on 3 June 2007.
Visual Studio 2005 was upgraded to support all the new features introduced in .NET Framework 2.0, including generics and ASP.NET 2.0. The IntelliSense feature in Visual Studio was upgraded for generics and new project types were added to support ASP.NET web services. Visual Studio 2005 also includes a local web server, separate from IIS, that can host ASP.NET applications during development and testing. It also supports all SQL Server 2005 databases. Database designers were upgraded to support the ADO.NET 2.0, which is included with .NET Framework 2.0. C++ also got a similar upgrade with the addition of C++/CLI which is slated to replace the use of Managed C++.Other new features of Visual Studio 2005 include the "Deployment Designer" which allows application designs to be validated before deployments, an improved environment for web publishing when combined with ASP.NET 2.0 and load testing to see application performance under various sorts of user loads. Starting with the 2005 edition, Visual Studio also added extensive 64-bit support. While the host development environment itself is only available as a 32-bit application, Visual C++ 2005 supports compiling for x86-64 (AMD64 and Intel 64) as well as IA-64 (Itanium).The Platform SDK included 64-bit compilers and 64-bit versions of the libraries.
Microsoft also announced Visual Studio Tools for Applications as the successor to Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and VSA (Visual Studio for Applications). VSTA 1.0 was released to manufacturing along with Office 2007. It is included with Office 2007 and is also part of the Visual Studio 2005 SDK. VSTA consists of a customized IDE, based on the Visual Studio 2005 IDE, and a runtime that can be embedded in applications to expose its features via the .NET object model. Office 2007 applications continue to integrate with VBA, except for InfoPath 2007 which integrates with VSTA. Version 2.0 of VSTA ( based on Visual Studio 2008) was released in April, 2008. It is significantly different from the first version, including features such as dynamic programming and support for WPF, WCF, WF, LINQ, and .NET 3.5 Framework.
Visual Studio 2008
Visual Studio 2008,and Visual Studio Team System 2008 codenamed Orcas (a reference to Orcas Island, also an island in Puget Sound, like Whidbey for the previous 2005 release), were released to MSDN subscribers on 19 November 2007 alongside .NET Framework 3.5. The source code for the Visual Studio 2008 IDE is available under a shared source license to some of Microsoft's partners and ISVs. Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2008 on 11 August 2008. The internal version number of Visual Studio 2008 is version 9.0 while the file format version is 10.0. Visual Studio 2008 is the last version to support targeting Windows 2000 for C++ applications.
Visual Studio 2008 is focused on development of Windows Vista, 2007 Office system, and Web applications. For visual design, a new Windows Presentation Foundation visual designer and a new HTML/CSS editor influenced by Microsoft Expression Web are included. J# is not included. Visual Studio 2008 requires .NET 3.5 Framework and by default configures compiled assemblies to run on .NET Framework 3.5, but it also supports multi-targeting which lets the developers choose which version of the .NET Framework (out of 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, Silverlight CoreCLR or .NET Compact Framework) the assembly runs on. Visual Studio 2008 also includes new code analysis tools, including the new Code Metrics tool (only in Team Edition and Team Suite Edition).For Visual C++, Visual Studio adds a new version of Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC 9.0) that adds support for the visual styles and UI controls introduced with Windows Vista. For native and managed code interoperability, Visual C++ introduces the STL/CLR, which is a port of the C++ Standard Template Library (STL) containers and algorithms to managed code. STL/CLR defines STL-like containers, iterators and algorithms that work on C++/CLI managed objects.
Visual Studio 2008 features include an XAML-based designer (codenamed Cider), workflow designer, LINQ to SQL designer (for defining the type mappings and object encapsulation for SQL Server data), XSLT debugger, JavaScript Intellisense support, JavaScript Debugging support, support for UAC manifests, a concurrent build system, among others. It ships with an enhanced set of UI widgets, both for Windows Forms and WPF. It also includes a multithreaded build engine (MSBuild) to compile multiple source files (and build the executable file) in a project across multiple threads simultaneously. It also includes support for compiling PNG compressed icon resources introduced in Windows Vista. An updated XML Schema designer will ship separately some time after the release of Visual Studio 2008.
The Visual Studio debugger includes features targeting easier debugging of multi-threaded applications. In debugging mode, in the Threads window, which lists all the threads, hovering over a thread will display the stack trace of that thread in tooltips.The threads can directly be named and flagged for easier identification from that window itself. In addition, in the code window, along with indicating the location of the currently executing instruction in the current thread, the currently executing instructions in other threads are also pointed out. The Visual Studio debugger supports integrated debugging of the .NET 3.5 Framework Base Class Library (BCL) which can dynamically download the BCL source code and debug symbols and allow stepping into the BCL source during debugging. As of 2010 a limited subset of the BCL source is available, with more library support planned for later.
Visual Studio 2010
On April 12, 2010, Microsoft released Visual Studio 2010, codenamed Dev10, and .NET Framework 4.
Visual Studio 2010 features a new UI developed using WPF
Visual Studio 2010 IDE has been redesigned which, according to Microsoft, clears the UI organization and "reduces clutter and complexity." The new IDE better supports multiple document windows and floating tool windows,while offering better multi-monitor support. The IDE shell has been rewritten using the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), whereas the internals have been redesigned using Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) that offers more extensibility points than previous versions of the IDE that enabled add-ins to modify the behavior of the IDE.
The new multi-paradigm ML-variant F# forms part of Visual Studio 2010; as do M, the textual modeling language, and Quadrant, the visual model designer, which are a part of the Oslo initiative.
Visual Studio 2010 comes with .NET Framework 4 and supports developing applications targeting Windows 7.It supports IBM DB2 and Oracle databases, in addition to Microsoft SQL Server. It has integrated support for developing Microsoft Silverlight applications, including an interactive designer. Visual Studio 2010 offers several tools to make parallel programming simpler: in addition to the Parallel Extensions for the .NET Framework and the Parallel Patterns Library for native code, Visual Studio 2010 includes tools for debugging parallel applications. The new tools allow the visualization of parallel Tasks and their runtime stacks. Tools for profiling parallel applications can be used for visualization of thread wait-times and thread migrations across processor cores.Intel and Microsoft have jointly pledged support for a new Concurrency Runtime in Visual Studio 2010 and Intel has launched parallelism support in Parallel Studio as an add-on for Visual Studio.
The Visual Studio 2010 code editor now highlights references; whenever a symbol is selected, all other usages of the symbol are highlighted. It also offers a Quick Search feature to incrementally search across all symbols in C++, C# and VB.NET projects. Quick Search supports substring matches and camelCase searches. The Call Hierarchy feature allows the developer to see all the methods that are called from a current method as well as the methods that call the current one. IntelliSense in Visual Studio supports a consume-first mode which developers can opt into. In this mode, IntelliSense will not auto-complete identifiers; this allows the developer to use undefined identifiers (like variable or method names) and define those later. Visual Studio 2010 can also help in this by automatically defining them, if it can infer their types from usage.
Visual Studio 2010 features a new Help System replacing the MSDN Library viewer. The Help System is no longer based on Microsoft Help 2 and does not use Microsoft Document Explorer. Dynamic help containing links to related help topics based on where the developer was in the IDE has been removed in the shipping product, but can be added back using a download from Microsoft.
Visual Studio 2010 no longer supports development for Windows Mobile prior to Windows Phone 7.
Visual Studio Ultimate 2010
Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 (formerly Team System or Team Suite), codenamed Rosario. It includes new modeling tools, such as the Architecture Explorer, which graphically displays projects and classes and the relationships between them. It supports UML activity diagram, component diagram, (logical) class diagram, sequence diagram, and use case diagram. Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 also includes Test Impact Analysis which provides hints on which test cases are impacted by modifications to the source code, without actually running the test cases. This speeds up testing by avoiding running unnecessary test cases.
Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 also includes a Historical Debugger for managed code called IntelliTrace. Unlike the current debugger, that records only the currently-active stack, IntelliTrace records all events like prior function calls, method parameters, events, exceptions etc. This allows the code execution to be rewound in case a breakpoint wasn't set where the error occurred. IntelliTrace will cause the application to run slower than the current debugger, and will use more memory as additional data needs to be recorded. Microsoft allows configuration of how much data should be recorded, in effect allowing developers to balance speed of execution and resource usage. The Lab Management component of Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 uses virtualization to create a similar execution environment for testers and developers. The virtual machines are tagged with checkpoints which can later be investigated for issues, as well as to reproduce the issue. Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 also includes the capability to record test runs that capture the specific state of the operating environment as well as the precise steps used to run the test. These steps can then be played back to reproduce issues.
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