Do you use code snippets (introduced in VB 2005)? If you do, then you've probably noticed the green highlighting that stays around for the lifetime of the file. We've heard *a lot* of feedback that once you are done customizing the snippet, it is distracting...

Just like Alt+Tab for Windows you can use Ctrl+Tab for Visual Studio. Ctrl+Tab will show you the active tool windows *and* the active files, so it is a good navigation tool for both. VS2008 has even added a cool miniature-sized visualization to this view...

I started as an intern at Microsoft two weeks ago, and I thought it might be nice to share my experience with you. Not just because I love blogging, but also because I think that there are so many great things that happen here that are worth mentioning...

Now that you know our team, it is time to get down to the real meat - we are building software here, so let’s talk about software. As I promised to keep you up to date with what is going on here at Microsoft, I decided to start a series of blog posts...

This post assumes you’ve read the previous posts in this series: Converting SQL to LINQ, Part 1: The Basics Converting SQL to LINQ, Part 2: FROM and SELECT Converting SQL to LINQ, Part 3: DISTINCT, WHERE, ORDER BY and Operators This post...

One of the things we have been working on recently was publishing sources of VisualBasic runtime library. I am very excited to announce that the sources of VB runtime (Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll) are publicly available now! This is a part of a more general...

After some hard but fruitful work, we’ve just finished our “milestone quality” (MQ) efforts, the goal of which was to get ourselves ready for developing the next versions of Visual Studio, Team System, and .NET. Although not specific to Visual Basic,...

This post assumes you’ve read my previous Converting SQL to LINQ posts. I haven’t had much in the way of specific requests for more LINQ posts, so I’d still welcome any suggestions that people want to offer. I did get one request about how to mimic...

My name is Jared Parsons and I am a developer on the VB Compiler and Debugger. One of the features I implemented for VB 9.0 is lexical closure support. This a great addition to the VB language and I wanted to do a series of blog posts to describe this...

I’m excited to announce that the Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Power Pack has been released and is now available for download on MSDN! In this release we have two components: Microsoft Interop Forms Toolkit 1.0 - This toolkit is aimed at simplifying...

In my previous post I gave a high level overview of some of the benefits of using Extension Methods in VB 9.0. Today I'm going to delve into some of the details about how to define extension methods and then use them in your programs. Defining Extension...

We’ve heard from you that popular hotfixes should be a public download rather than requiring a call to support. Based your feedback, we’ve launched a pilot program that will allow you to download the most frequently requested Visual Basic 2005 hotfixes...

Posted By: Jonetta Taylor, Documentation Manager The Visual Basic User Education team has an interesting opportunity that I wanted to share with you all. We're looking for a Visual Basic .Net application programmer who also has a flair for writing...

This was one of the hardest decisions we had to make. We know this is a very intuitive way to work. I’ve got my database, and I want it on my form (period). Background First, lets look at what we had in 2002, 2003. In 2003 you could drag from Server Explorer...

While helping some Windows API folks with some sample code this week, I stumbled upon...uh...I mean “carefully researched” an issue that you might find handy. You may be aware that the RaiseEvent statement automatically checks to verify if an event...

In my last post, I talked about the hidden costs that can occur whenever you call out to methods, particularly in loops. In looking at my examples, reader KG2V commented that another thing that folks need to be aware of is avoiding the assumption that...

I needed to create a list of all Code Snippets we ship in Visual Studio the other day containing their title, description and path on disc and size. As you might know, Code Snippets are stored in multiple directories below "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual...

Last month when I was in Redmond I was pulled into a photo with some of the people working on Visual Basic. Do you notice something quirky about these pictures (besides me)? Yes, they are all wearing grey shirts! There's apparently a running joke going...

How do I convert an IEnumerable(Of CheckingAccount) into an IEnumerable(Of Account) ? (where CheckingAccount inherits from Account). Currently this conversion isn't allowed, but we're considering a VB language feature to support it. The topic is called...

I'm happy to announce that the PInvoke Interop Assistant tool is now available on CodePlex. This includes the binaries, source code and the dev authored unit tests. It is hosted on the more general CLR Interop Tools page. http://www.codeplex.com...

When you have a question about how an API works, most of you will look in the MSDN Library .  There are some tips and tricks to finding what you need in this vast resource.  First of all, there are two main ways you can read the content in the...

One of the improvements in VS2010 (CTP available for download here ) is drag and drop data binding for WPF. Drag-drop data binding has been available for WinForms since Visual Studio 2005. So those of you that are familiar with that will find the WPF...

VB Enthusiasts, Following last Wednesday’s official launch of Visual Studio 2012, we’re excited to announce that the Roslyn September 2012 CTP is now available for download and provides support for VS 2012 RTM. Please note that Visual Studio...

This is the 5th installment in my series of posts about extension methods. You can find links to the rest of the series here . Originally I had planned on discussing extension method versioning issues, but I've decided to postpone that topic to my next...

This post assumes you’ve read the previous posts in this series. It makes the same assumptions as Part 8, and I will pick up where I left off, covering Full Outer Join. Once again, I recognize this isn’t an ideal situation, so if you’d like to see better...