Visual Studio 2006

VISUAL STUDIO 2006 CTP
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Download Visual Studio 2006 CTP
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http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=82243606-d16d-445c-8949-9ee8c10cda2e&DisplayLang=en

Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" delivers on Microsoft’s vision of smart client applications by enabling developers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality rich user experiences. This new version enables any size organization to rapidly create more secure, manageable, and more reliable applications that take advantage of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System. By building these new types of applications, organizations will find it easier than ever before to capture and analyze information so that they can make effective business decisions. This download is the September 2006 Community Technology Preview of Microsoft Visual Studio Code-Named “Orcas”. Note: This CTP is available only as a Virtual PC image. You will need Virtual PC or Virtual Server to run this image. Depending on your hardware the download files make take between 30-60 minutes to decompress.This CTP targets early adopters of the Microsoft technology, platform, and tools offerings. It enables developers to experience the upcoming toolset and underlying platform improvements. We designed this release to enable developers try out new technology and product changes, but not to build production systems. This limitation is fully covered in the EULA that accompanies this CTP.

The highlights of this CTP include:
Improvements on the widely acclaimed Visual Studio 2005 product set
Significant investments in improving product quality
LINQ to Objects API
LINQ to Objects API supports queries over any .NET collection, such as arrays and Generic Lists.
This API is defined in the System.Query namespaces inside System.Core.dll.
Partial C# 3.0 Language Support: This CTP implements some of the new language features of C# 3.0
Local variable type interface
Lambda expressions
Object initializers
Partial C# 3.0 IDE Support: In addition to the C# 3.0 language features there is partial IDE support
Colorization and New Keywords in Completion List
Edit and Continue Rude Edit Detection
Partial VB 9.0 Language support (Due to differences in feature delivery schedules VB implementations of the above C# features will appear in a future CTP)
Local variable type inference and Option Infer switch
VSTS Improvements in load & unit testing such as unit test for devices
Device development improvements
VSTS integration
Access and modify device security configuration from the IDE
Enables developers to build and debug a Windows Vista Application
Enables Visual Studio Tools for Office developers to build document-level customizations for Word and Excel 2007
Enables eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0 developers to use Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” to build their existing applications

NET Framework improvements such as:
New managed add-in model enables developers to add a version-resilient extensibility model to their products.
Support for time zone conversion, enumeration and serialization, including cases where Daylight Saving Time rules change over time.
Reflection in Partial Trust, enabling sand box scenarios for all applications that depend on these features.
The ability to control the garbage collector’s latency mode
Improved CLR ThreadPool micro-performance and throughput for worker and IO completionExisting CTPs: As Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” CTPs are released on a predefined cadence existing CTPs may not yet have been integrated into a given “Orcas” CTP release (for example, this CTP does not include the functionality of the Language Integrated Query CTP). This should not be taken as a change in commitment to any existing technology that has been made available as a CTP but instead is just a real world example of how large applications, with many technology areas, are built. We will be integrating this existing functionality into future CTP builds. Before you install: This CTP is released as a Virtual PC Image. By using a VPC image, developers can run the CTP on a machine without impacting any existing software installations. The CTP can be removed by deleting the folder and using the Virtual PC application to remove the configuration information.This image ships with networking set to “local”. This setting enables the virtual machine to think it is connected to a network without actually connecting and exposing the machine to the Internet. We recommend that customers do not modify the networking settings. Customers who wish to turn networking “on” to connected the image to a physical network are advised that they will need to ensure the security of the virtual machine as well as apply any security updates that may have become available since the release of this image.This CTP image requires the use of Microsoft virtualization products, either Virtual PC 2004 SP1 or Virtual Server 2005 R2. Both these products are freely available from the Microsoft website. This CTP is available in English only.

System Requirements:
Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 2
Processor: 1.6GHz Pentium III+
RAM: 1 GB of available physical RAM** The amount of physical RAM depends on what applications are running on the client machine. You can use the Task Manager to identify how much physical RAM is available on your machine. Running applications other than VirtualPC will consume available physical RAM.
VPC Credentials: Username: Administrator Password: P@ssw0rd (NOTE: Microsoft strongly recommends that immediately after installation you log in and change the administrator password)