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Home >> .NET / C# >> .NET >> General

General

.NET Framework Classes


An ADO.NET Data Services Tutorial
Rating:
mendhak - 07/09/2009
An ADO.NET Data Services Tutorial covering REST, querystring operations and expressions, HTTP verbs, Linq to Data Services, security, exceptions and tracing.

[Updated] New Features in Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0
Rating:
mendhak - 11/03/2008
Learn about several features relevant to developers in Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0, such as parallel programming, XSLT debugging, new ASP.NET features, and new VB.NET and C# features that include the Chart control, XSD Designer, Lambda Expressions, and optional parameters.

Creating a Pretty IE Toolbar in C#
Rating:
Anton Zlobin - 09/11/2008
Learn about the work principles and ways and use of IEToolbarEngine. This is a toolbar for Internet Explorer, which has a reusable architecture.

ADO.NET Entity Framework Tutorial and Basics
Rating:
mendhak - 09/03/2008
Discover an ADO.NET Entity Framework tutorial covering basic data operations for applications, including LINQ To Entities, Method Expressions, stored procedure mapping, and a little discussion about its usage in an enterprise environment.

Exploring Net60
Rating: none
Alex Gusev - 08/27/2008
Have you ever dreamt about porting your managed Windows Mobile application to Symbian OS? Or, maybe you wanted to develop a new one but were uncertain whether you need to learn a new paradigms and languages? Well, with Net60 from Red Five Labs, you may be relieved; you can continue your development in your favorite languages!

Explore the Microsoft .NET Micro Framework
Rating: none
Alex Gusev - 08/13/2008
The Microsoft .NET Micro Framework, formerly known as Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT), is a powerful and flexible platform for rapidly creating embedded device firmware with Microsoft Visual Studio. Now is just the right time to explore this new world.

Generics: Base Class Constraint
Rating: none
Michael.Heliso - 07/22/2008
Generics represent the new type introduced in .NET Framework 2.0. By understanding generics, you gain the ability to create classes, interfaces, methods, and delegates that can manipulate any kind of data in type safe mode. Certainly, you have noticed that many times you had to implement some logical functionality in your application but for different data types.

The .NET Micro Framework: A First Look
Rating:
Bradley Jones - 09/20/2007
Take a look at how you now can use your C# skills to create an embedded application. No hardware is required to get started!

Simple Application to Zip and UnZip Files in C# Using J# Libraries
Rating:
Mohammed Habeeb - 05/08/2007
Learn about the usage of a J# library in C# for zipping and unzipping functionalities.

State Machine Workflow with WinWF
Rating: none
Mark Strawmyer - 04/11/2007
Discover the power behind state machine workflow and how it can be used to more closely match business and other processes.

The Ins and Outs of Dependency Properties and Routed Events in WPF
Rating:
Sahil Malik - 03/16/2007
Get an introduction to dependency properties and routed events in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), two extremely important topics in WPF—especially if you want to write custom elements.

Clipboard Ring Application
Rating:
Mohammed Habeeb - 03/12/2007
Learn about the use of the Windows clipboard via a clipboard ring utility. It also illustrates a Yahoo! messenger-like popup alert feature.

Looking at the WCF Windows Communication Foundation
Rating:
Jayant Kulkarni - 02/20/2007
Discover Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). Microsoft introduced this technology, which is a part of .NET 3.0, to make your life easy when it comes to building distributed applications.

Building a Custom Activity in Windows Workflow Foundation
Rating: none
Mark Strawmyer - 02/07/2007
Activities are the building blocks of workflows. When you use Windows Workflow Foundation, you likely will want to build custom activities to fit your tasks.

.NET Tip: Creating a Collection of Your Objects
Rating: none
Eric Smith - 12/18/2006
The generic collection introduced with .NET 2.0 allows you to create collections of your objects without having to design a new class.

Meet DependencyObject and DependencyProperty, the .NET Data-Binding Boosters
Rating: none
Chad Campbell - 12/13/2006
Using the DependencyObject and the DependencyProperty in conjunction enables .NET developers to expose some of the powerful features of the Windows Presentation Foundation. Learn how to implement data binding with them.

Get Ready for Windows Workflow Foundation
Rating: none
Mark Strawmyer - 11/22/2006
Microsoft will introduce the much-anticipated Windows Workflow Foundation (WinWF) as part of the .NET Framework 3. Get the lowdown on WinWF and learn how to build a sequential workflow with it.

.NET Framework 3.0 Released
Rating: none
Bradley Jones - 11/08/2006
The current version of the .NET Framework is 3.0.

ASP.NET Tip: Binding to Alternate Data Sources
Rating: none
Eric Smith - 10/16/2006
Sure, you can bind database-related objects to grids and repeaters, but what about binding your own objects to grids and lists? Learn how to build a class that can be bound to a Repeater without involving any databases.

.NET Tip: Run ASP.NET 1.1 with ASP.NET 2.0 on Windows 2003
Rating: none
Eric Smith - 06/09/2006
The .NET Framework 2.0 gets very fussy when you try to run both ASP.NET 1.1 and ASP.NET 2.0 sites in the same application pool. Learn how to support both versions on the same Windows 2003 machine.

Common Type System (CTS): One Platform to Rule Them All
Rating: none
Joe Duffy - 05/10/2006
The Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) specification executes code inside the bounds of a well-defined type system, called the Common Type System (CTS).

Protecting Visual Basic .NET Source Code and Applications
Rating:
Hannes du Preez - 04/26/2006
Discover the secrets of Obfuscation, Cryptography, and technologies used to protect your Visual Basic .NET applications, once distributed.

Enterprise Library 2.0: Building Named Extensions in the Configuration Console
Rating:
Vijay Mehta - 04/05/2006
See how the Configuration Console is an extremely powerful tool that can be used to simplify creating and editing .config files.

Accessing Directory Services in .NET Framework 2.0
Rating: none
Mark Strawmyer - 02/13/2006
The Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 has made several improvements to the System.DirectoryServices namespace. They expand your ability to interact with your enterprise Active Directory.

BizTalk 2004 Adapter Alternatives for Handling Web Services
Rating: none
Jeffrey Juday - 02/01/2006
Combine BizTalk 2004 with the .NET Framework to overcome some of BizTalk's limitations in handling Web services.

Type Design Guidelines for Reusable .NET Libraries
Rating:
Addison-Wesley Professional Books - 12/27/2005
Get advise on type design from industy experts.

What Anonymous Methods Might Look Like in VB.NET
Rating:
Paul Kimmel - 06/23/2005
Anonymous methods haven't shown up in the current beta version of VB.NET 2.0. Paul Kimmel predicts that they will in upcoming releases and shows what they might look like.

Type Converters, Your Friendly Helpers!
Rating: none
Klaus Salchner - 05/04/2005
Any time you develop a Web form or windows form using the Visual Studio .NET designer or use the view state architecture of ASP.NET, you rely on the help of a type converter.

Using Regular Expressions to Search and Replace Text
Rating: none
Tom Archer - MSFT - 04/07/2005
When you deal with user input or text files, you usually have to search through that input and replace literals, special characters, or patterns. Learn how to perform this common task via the .NET regular expressions classes.

Code Access Security with Microsoft .NET Framework, Part 2
Rating:
Mark Strawmyer - 03/10/2005
The Microsoft .NET Framework provides imperative and declarative ways to check for proper permissions prior to attempting an action. Learn how and when to use them.

Versioning Tolerance Serialization in .NET Framework 2.0
Rating:
SeenivasaRagavan Ramadurai - 03/02/2005
New to .NET Framework 2.0 is VTS (Versioning Tolerance Serialization). Learn about it here.

Mastering Internet Programming on Mobile Devices: An Asynchronous Data Exchange
Rating: none
Alex Gusev - 11/18/2004
Learn how to create applications that may connect to the Internet or an intranet. This article helps determine an asynchronous way of data transfer over the Internet.


.NET My Services


Is Azure the New Silver Lining?
Rating: none
Jani Järvinen - 01/22/2009
By now, you have heard of Windows Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing platform. But, what does Azure provide for developers and users, and how can you benefit from it in your .NET applications? Read on to find out.

Implementing a UserNameForCertificate Security Using WCF
Rating: none
Vijay Pandey - 03/23/2007
Learn how to design a secure WCF service using UserNameForCertificate and how to write a Custom User name validator.

Remote Scripting, WebService Behaviour, and Script Call Back
Rating: none
sndshreeman - 04/27/2005
Learn about the Calling server method from a client script and script callback: the different technologies adopted and the pros and cons of each.


Arithmetic


TIP: Statistics
Rating:
Eran Aharonovich - 06/08/2006
Learn a few helpful statistical functions.

Operator Overloading for Mathematical Libraries
Rating:
VijayaSekhar Gullapalli - 01/20/2005
Discover the concept of operator overloading in C# and its application in mathematical libraries.


Assemblies


.NET Tip: Display Public Information for an Assembly
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 12/26/2007
Discover how to display the public information for an assembly. This will allow you to get a complete view of the assemblies you are using or creating.

Using the .NET Fusion API to Manipulate the GAC
Rating:
Nick Wienholt - 11/03/2006
Fusion is the code name for the .NET Framework sub-system responsible for locating and loading assemblies. It comes in handy for C++ developers who are working with the GAC.

Assemblies in .NET
Rating:
sameer_sood - 05/11/2006
Learn how to use C# to create shared .NET assemblies.

[Updated] Deploy SQL Databases Easily with the Installer Class
Rating:
Stefan Prodan - 05/02/2005
Discover a way to make SQL databases easy to deploy within a MSI file along with your applications.


COM/COM+


[Updated] Create an ActiveX using a Csharp Usercontrol
Rating: none
Andreas Verhamme - 07/20/2009
How to register a Csharp Usercontrol as ActiveX (properties, methods, events)

Common Pitfalls of COM Interoperability in .Net (not yet reviewed)
Rating: none
supreet_hvr_1980 - 01/21/2009
Discover some of the common pitfalls of using COM Interoperability in .NET as well as best practices that could help you steer clear of these pitfalls.

Simplify Application Deployment with Registration-Free COM
Rating: none
Nick Wienholt - 08/14/2006
In the days before .NET, COM's dependency on the Registry and its backward compatibility issues were the Achilles' heels of Win32 development. Learn a technique for deploying your existing COM components without the pain traditionally associated with the Registry.

Enumerating Exchange Contacts in .NET
Rating: none
Ben Rush - 07/21/2005
Through COM Interop, learn how to program against the Exchange Store for Exchange Server 2003.


Debugging and Error Handling


Creating a DockablePanel-Controlmanager Using C#, Part 7
Rating:
JonnyPoet - 05/15/2008
Going on to design a dockable panel, discover some very interesting techniques, such as hooking the mouse and how to debug an application in such cases. Learn to unpin a docked panel so it slides to the border of the main application.

.NET Tip: Throwing Custom Exceptions
Rating:
Jay Miller - 10/12/2007
Use custom exceptions to add information that will be more meaningful to your users when exceptions occur. And, you still can maintain all the information from the original exception.

.NET Tip: Implement IDisposable to Ensure Your Objects Clean Up After Themselves
Rating:
Jay Miller - 08/21/2007
Be a good resource citizen by implementing IDisposable. You will be able to ensure that your objects have the opportunity to release all of their managed and unmanaged resources.

.NET Tip: Managing Resources with the Using Statement
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 08/13/2007
Take control of the lifetime of your objects. Release your object's resources on your schedule, not when the CLR determines they are no longer needed.

Exceptional Error Handling with BizTalk 2006 and InfoPath
Rating: none
Jeffrey Juday - 01/19/2007
Human intervention for error handling often requires business knowledge as well as the right tools. In BizTalk, InfoPath and failed message routing can be the foundation for building these tools.

Redirecting Configuration with a Custom Provider
Rating: none
Stefan Schackow - 09/27/2006
Explores this helpful technique presented by Wrox author Stefan Schackow for working in ASP.NET in multiple environments from testing, to staging, to live, to backup servers.

SOS from Your Production Environment
Rating: none
Klaus Salchner - 04/11/2005
All the best software development practices and testing efforts in the world cannot guarantee that there are no intermittent or unexplainable application issues when in production. Worst case scenario being application hangs and crashes. This article shows how to take dumps of .NET applications and analyze them. This helps developers to understand the issue and find the faulty code.

Perform Exception Handling in .NET Exceptionally
Rating:
Mark Strawmyer - 11/10/2004
This month, .NET Nuts & Bolts covers exception handling, examining what exceptions are and why they are important. You'll learn how to use them, how to create custom exceptions, and how to apply common best practices.


Events and Delegates


.NET Tip: Writing to the Event Log
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 04/30/2008
Create a class to add Error, Warning, and Information entries in the Windows event log.

[Updated] Using Delegates to Interchange Information Between Siblings of a Parent Form
Rating:
Mehedi Shams - 12/11/2007
Discover how to interchange information between sibling forms of a parent form. In many cases, especially in MDI applications, you need to interchange information between child forms that are instantiated by the same parent. In such cases, delegates are a suitable way to exchange information.

MFC Controls for Vista
Rating: none
Nick Wienholt - 09/04/2007
Microsoft Foundation Classes continue to play an important role for C++ developers. Discover how to upgrade an existing application with MFC 9's full support for the Windows Vista look-and-feel.

Understanding Relaxed Delegates in VB
Rating:
Paul Kimmel - 03/09/2007
Microsoft relaxed delegates in VB 8.0 to provide more options for binding event handlers to events. Some further relaxation is in store with the upcoming VB 9.0 release. Find out how it works.

[Updated] Creating a Custom Message Box
Rating:
Syed M Hussain - 01/30/2007
Learn how to develop a custom message box in C#.

Events and Delegates in Depth
Rating:
Jayant Kulkarni - 12/08/2006
Learn the details about events and delegates. You'll also read about the .NET 2.0 features for delegates.

Using the New Extension Methods Feature in C# 3.0
Rating: none
Vipul Patel - 03/20/2006
Extension methods provide a new mechanism for invoking static methods on object instances. Although they behave similarly to static methods, they offer greater convenience.

Remoting Chat Application
Rating:
Jayant Kulkarni - 08/11/2005
The application is designed using .NET remoting framework 1.0. .NET remoting provides a very powerful framework for the distributed application.

.NET Remoting and Event Handling in VB .NET, Part 3
Rating:
Paul Kimmel - 03/07/2005
Learn the ins and outs of .NET remoting and event handling in VB .NET with an examination of the supporting code in a simple chat client and server application, including the use of the command, observer, singleton, and factory patterns.

Basic Event Handling in C#
Rating:
T.H. Bak - 01/11/2005
A simple illustration of using event handling and delegates for a new service.


General


Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 Won't be the End of March!
Bradley L. Jones - 04/14/2005
With the official announced date past, do we know when Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 will release?


Graphics


Moving and Sizing Pictureboxes
Rating: none
Richard Newcombe - 06/23/2008
Cover a simple problem that often takes the longest time to solve because of the math required.

Turn Image Hotlinking to Your Advantage
Rating:
mendhak - 02/12/2008
Don't block hotlinked images; instead, learn how to label them to bring visitors to your web site and increase your web presence, even if you are restricted by a shared hosting environment.

[Updated] An "Outlook Like" Control
Rating:
Adel Eddin - 10/15/2007
Discover a control that behaves like the Tab control but has visual cues that look more like the Navigation panel in Outlook. You are can add as many tabs as you want.

[Updated] Creating Your Own Drawing Application with Visual Basic.NET, Part 2
Rating:
Hannes du Preez - 03/27/2007
Continuing from Part One, you will: Include the capability to first draw, then fill the drawn objects. Include a marquee while drawing, just so you have a visible cue of the diameters of the current drawing. Refine the triangle logic.

[Updated] Creating Your Own Drawing Application with Visual Basic .NET, Part 1
Rating:
Hannes du Preez - 03/26/2007
Learn how to create your own drawing application, step by step. This part (Part 1) creates the framework for your drawing application.

IconLib: Icons Unfolded (MultiIcon and Windows Vista supported)
Rating:
CastorTiu - 12/06/2006
Learn about a library to manipulate icons and icons libraries with support to create, load, save, import and export icons in ico, icl, dll, exe, cpl and src format (Windows Vista icons supported).

Creating an Interactive 3D World in C#.NET
Rating:
Fatima Ahmed - 02/06/2006
The advent of new features in DirectX have given a boost to the way 3D applications are coded. See how easy it is to create a 3D scene with DirectX 9.0 API and a 3D Engine.

Uploading Images to a Web Site Is Harder Than You Think
Rating: none
Paul Kimmel - 08/22/2005
Uploading images in Web applications isn't nearly as simple as you may think. Learn the mechanics—and frustrations—of permitting image uploads, saving images, and rendering images.

[Updated] The Mists of Avalon
Rating:
Guido Stercken-Sorrenti - 07/25/2005
Learn about "Avalon," the exciting new presentation subsystem of the upcoming Windows platforms. After an introduction to declarative drawing and XAML, you'll use XAMLPad to get a first taste of Avalon programming.


Internet


Tip: HTTP Conditional Get
Rating:
Wong Shao Voon - 04/24/2009
Use HTTP Conditional Get to implement download cache.

A Tour of WPF in Visual Studio 2008
Rating: none
Arlen Feldman - 04/06/2009
Take a look at the various features of Visual Studio for working with WPF.

KBSoft IP Locator
Rating:
Anton Zlobin - 12/19/2008
Explore various aspects of getting information by IP Address.

[Updated] Notes from Microsoft PDC 2008
Rating:
Bradley Jones - 10/28/2008
A few tidbits from PDC 2008. Azure, Silverlight, WPF, Windows 7, and much more!

Sanity Checks for Your ASP.NET Web Site
Rating:
mendhak - 02/01/2008
Discover a few points to keep in mind during and after the creation of your web site, such as form referrer check, URL canonization, and so forth.

FTPS vs. SFTP: What to Choose
Rating:
Eugene Mayevski - 10/11/2007
FTP over SSL (FTPS) and SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) are the most often used and confused protocols for secure file transfer. Learn about both of them and evaluate their pros and cons.

Enabling Internet Explorer for Debugging ASP.NET AJAX
Rating: none
Dan Whalin - 09/13/2007
Wrox author and Microsoft MVP Dan Wahlin shows how to use Internet Explorer with Visual Studio for JavaScript debugging in ASP.NET AJAX.

Creating an Ajax Search Widget
Rating: none
Jeremy McPeak - 08/11/2006
See how easy it is to integrate a search widget on your site using Ajax with this detailed example from Professional Ajax author Nicholas C. Zakas.

Web Tip: Add Message and Confirmation Boxes Using JavaScript
Rating:
Eric Smith - 06/21/2006
By adding a JavaScript confirmation dialog to your Web application, you can help prevent users from doing something they will regret.

XMLHttp Requests for Ajax
Rating: none
Nicholas C. Zakas - 05/12/2006
Professional AJAX author Nicolas Zakas shows the benefits as well as some of the disadvantages of using HTTP requests in your applications.

Restricting User Entry Using JavaScript and Reg Expressions
Rating: none
Ezhilan - 11/21/2005
Learn how to restrict controls to accept only a valid entry from a user with minimum coding using Regular Expressions.

Displaying RSS Items with C# and ASP.NET
Rating:
Bradley Jones - 11/18/2005
It is painless to display RSS feed items using C# and ASP.NET 2.0. A simple method is provided that accepts an RSS Feed URL.

IP Address Comparison and Conversion in C#
Rating:
Lowe*Software - 10/14/2005
When using .NET and C#, IP Address information is stored in the System.Net.IPAddress class, which provides no method for comparing IP addresses except for equality. Learn to circumvent that problem.

Product Overload: Microsoft
Rating:
Bradley Jones - 09/16/2005
Are you missing Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC)? If so, you'll still want to make sure you keep up on all the announcements.

Your Free Search Engine: Microsoft Indexing Server
Rating: none
Klaus Salchner - 05/18/2005
Learn how to set up Microsoft's powerful indexing and searching engine, Microsoft Indexing Server, to search its index from within your Web or file-based applications.


Keyboard


Keyboard Spy: Implementation and Counter Measures
Rating:
Dor Alon - 05/12/2005
Learn to develop hook-based key loggers and hook-safe software.


Macros


Write Macro Code Generators with VS 2005
Rating: none
Paul Kimmel - 07/27/2005
You can employ macros to write code for you. Learn how to use the macro engine in VS 2005 to write a code generator that implements the refactoring Encapsulate Field for VB.NET.


Patterns


Implement a Command Pattern Using C#
Rating: none
cfyao - 11/24/2008
Learn how to implement a Command design pattern using C# with menus and toolstrip buttons as userinterface objects.

Choosing Between MVC and MVP Patterns in ASP.NET
Rating: none
Oleg Zhukov - 05/22/2008
Probe for ASP.NET developers and choose the right pattern between MVC and MVP, concerning all major differences between them.

Let Your Parser Go for the GOLD
Rating:
Victor Volkman - 07/19/2007
Learn how the GOLD Parser system can help you develop fast and efficient parsers in any programming language environment, including C++, Java, and .NET just to name a few. GOLD is a freeware parser generator that includes a DFA and LALR parser you can include in your app with unlimited licensing. GOLD is a great alternative to GNU Bison, which locks you into the C++ environment.

Smart Client: Composite UI Application Block
Rating: none
Mark Strawmyer - 07/10/2007
Learn about the CAB at a very high level. With it you can create Windows Forms-based applications that have sophisticated capability without being as sophisticated to create.

Server-Based AJAX for Enterprise Applications
Rating: none
Guy Peled - 05/16/2007
Sever-based AJAX is a new edition to the AJAX framework arena that may just be the perfect solution for AJAX enterprise adaptation.

Voice Recognition in VB .NET
Rating: none
Richard Newcombe - 01/19/2007
Now that you understand how to use voice recognition in VB6, look into using it in VB .NET.

Classic Parsing with Flex and Bison
Rating:
Victor Volkman - 11/08/2006
Its ease of use combined with its low footprint and high degree of portability make Bison and Flex ideal for rapidly developing useful parsers for today's challenging translation applications.

Design a Football Engine and Learn How to Apply Design Patterns (Observer, Decorator, Strategy)
Rating: none
Anoop Madhusudanan - 06/12/2006
Learn how to model a very simple football game engine and identify the design problems in it.

Go Inside C# 3.0's Type Inference Process
Rating: none
Vipul Patel - 04/26/2006
When a generic method is called without specifying type arguments, C# 3.0 uses a type inference process to infer the arguments. Find out how it works.

Using Regular Expressions Groups to Isolate Sub-Matches
Rating:
Tom Archer - MSFT - 03/16/2005
Learn how to extract sub-matches from your regular expression matches with the .NET Group and GroupCollection classes.

Understanding Basic Regular Expressions Patterns
Rating:
Tom Archer - MSFT - 03/01/2005
For programmers who are new to regular expressions, Tom Archer presents some basic metacharacters and explains how to use them to perform simple pattern matching with regular expressions.


Performance


C# Language Highlight: Using Keyword
Rating:
Mark Strawmyer - 01/30/2008
Learn about the dual-purpose of the C# using keyword. Examine why it can be extremely helpful in object management, and the syntax for its use.

.NET Tip: Data Encapsulation: Using Properties Instead of Public Variables
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 09/14/2007
Here is encapsulation, one of the very basic tenets of object-oriented programming. Using properties instead of public variables helps insulate the users of your class from change, provides you more flexibility, and will ease maintenance of your class.

Get Jagged!
Rating:
Bill Hatfield - 08/22/2007
Super-charge your .NET application performance by implementing jagged arrays.

Implementing Extension Methods in VB.NET
Rating: none
Paul Kimmel - 05/25/2007
Extension Methods permit programmers to add behavior to a class without creating a wrapper. Here, you will learn how to implement Extension Methods in Visual Basic and .NET.

Windows Forms Tricks You May Have Missed
Rating: none
Mark Strawmyer - 10/23/2006
Here are several lesser-known tips and tricks that will assist you in building fully functional and well performing Windows Forms applications.

.NET Tip: Using a Parameter Array in Your Functions
Rating:
Eric Smith - 06/14/2006
When you're creating a function that needs a variable list of arguments, use a parameter array.

CLR Method Internals (.NET 2.0)
Rating:
Joe Duffy - 04/28/2006
Method calls are the bread and butter of C# and VB programming, but a lot of moving pieces go into making that all work.

Implement Caching to Give Your .NET Applications a Performance Boost
Rating: none
Thiru Thangarathinam - 11/15/2005
Caching can dramatically improve the performance of a database-driven .NET application. The Enterprise Library caching block encapsulates the plumbing code required to implement caching in a reusable block.

Take Advantage of Isolated Storage with .NET
Rating: none
Mike Amundsen - 11/03/2004
Learn the basics of the .NET runtime's isolated storage function. Then, see how to use it to create a utility class that makes reading and writing user-specific application data safe and easy.


System Information


Are Ports on Your Computers Listening?
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 04/17/2009
See how you can determine which ports on a computer have an application listening.

.NET Tip: Are Your Computers Up and Running? Are You Sure?
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 04/02/2009
add this functionality to your applications to determine if machines on the network are there!

[Updated] Accessing the Registry with VB6 and VB.NET
Rating:
Hannes du Preez - 02/04/2008
Discover the main differences between accessing the Registry with VB 6 and with VB.NET.

Garbage Collector
Rating:
Michael.Heliso - 09/12/2007
Any program uses resources. These resources can be files, database resources, network connections, memory buffers, objects, and so forth. Learn how to allocate memory for these resources.

Determining Whether a DLL or EXE Is a Managed Component
Rating:
kirants - 07/25/2007
Learn how to check whether or not a component is a .NET managed component. Also, learn to get other information, such as dependent assemblies, from the metadata using Microsoft APIs and related COM interfaces.

.NET Tip: Searching System Event Logs for Valuable Info
Rating: none
Eric Smith - 08/16/2006
System event logs can provide valuable information, but manually finding the worthwhile details in them can be difficult. Learn the easy, automated ways .NET provides for reading and searching event logs.

.NET Tip: Logging Exceptions to the Event Log
Rating: none
Eric Smith - 08/02/2006
The system event log is a good place to store information about your .NET application, and writing entries to the event log is fairly straightforward. You can easily add the code for it to a utility class.

Who Connects to Your Computer?
Rating:
akomarov - 05/03/2006
Learn about monitoring the Windows event log for user logon events.

A Preview of What's New in C# 3.0
Rating:
Sahil Malik - 11/04/2005
Get a sneak peek at some of the major language enhancements Microsoft has in store for C# 3.0.

Form Fade In/Out Effect and Notification Window
Rating:
Abhinaba Basu - 07/08/2005
Learn about a form that can be used to give a fade in/out effect to any form and especifically to notification/alert windows.


Threads


Using the Task Parallel Library and PLINQ to Go Parallel
Rating: none
Jani Järvinen - 06/30/2009
With more and more computers using a multi-core processor, the free lunch of increased clock speeds and the inherent performance gains are over. Software developers must instead make sure their applications take use of all the cores available in an efficient manner. New features in .NET 4.0 mean that managed code developers too can join the party.

Create Your Own Thread Pool
11/10/2008
By Chris Bennett - Need a thread pool with a customized level of control? Learn how to create your own thread pool in .NET.

Visual C++ Thread Debugging
Rating: none
Nick Wienholt - 08/06/2008
Thread debugging can be one of the more difficult debugging exercises for a Visual C++ developer. The Visual Studio 2008 debugger contains a number of improvements that make thread debugging more productive, enabling code issues in multi-threaded applications to be identified and remedied faster.

.NET Tip: Creating a Thread-Safe Singleton
Rating:
Jay Miller - 02/01/2008
The singleton pattern can be used in a wide variety of situations. This tip will show you how to create a thread-safe version of a singleton.

[Updated] Invoking Command Lines Programmatically
Rating:
Thomas Weller - 12/28/2004
The CommandLineProcess class provides a handy way for executing a command line and receiving the resulting text output. No console window is needed.


Tips & Tricks


Introducing the Entity Framework
Rating: none
Mark Strawmyer - 07/02/2009
The Entity Framework provides a .NET class-based model of a data store, letting you query the model with LINQ, while the model do the background grunt work of contacting the data store to add, update, or delete data.

Using Team Build to Build Database Projects
Rating: none
Manning Publications - 06/23/2009
Customize the Team Build project file to automatically deploy the database build script to a target database.

Install Dummy SSL certificate
Rating: none
aneezah - 04/13/2009
If you need an SSL certificate in a testing environment only for testing purposes and not actual verification and authentication, then this article will show you how to create a dummy cert

Creating Flexible Constant Fields
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 03/13/2009
Discover how to use constant fields without having to hard code the values into the class.

TIP: Closing your WCF Connections properly
Rating: none
mendhak - 03/09/2009
This tip looks at properly closing a WCF connection from your application - whether you're using the proxy classes or a ChannelFactory.

.NET Tip: Avoiding Boolean Overload
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 02/27/2009
Reduce your boolean logic to keep you program readable.

TIP: Using Proxies and ChannelFactory in WCF
Rating: none
mendhak - 02/26/2009
Look at the two methods of talking to WCF services and when to use them. Also see sample code to use the ChannelFactory in C#.

C# Tips and Tricks
Rating:
Mark Strawmyer - 02/09/2009
Learn some tips and tricks with the C# 3.0 language features along with exploring some productivity gains with the Visual Studio IDE.

.NET Tip: It's 2:00 a.m. Do You Know What Your Processes Are Doing?
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 11/03/2008
Monitor the health of the processes running on your system.

.NET Tip: Using a Nullable Value Type
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 10/03/2008
Discover how to use nullable types when retrieving data from your database.

.NET Tip: Take a Byte out of Strings
Rating:
Jay Miller - 09/19/2008
Convert a string to an array of bytes and back again.

Adding Attachments to Excel 2007 Email Hyperlinks
Rating: none
Paul Kimmel - 08/29/2008
Learn to add attachments to hyperlinks that contain email addresses by using a little bit of VBA.

Writing CDs with C# and Windows XP's ICDBurn Interface
Rating:
Hannes du Preez - 05/21/2008
Learn how to write data to a CD while utilising XP's ICDBurn interface.

.NET Tip: String Literals Without Escape Characters
Rating:
Jay Miller - 03/26/2008
Use @-quoted strings to avoid escape characters in your string literals.

.NET Tip: Filling Lists with Enums
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 01/11/2008
Most applications developers build have lists or dropdowns that need to be filled with values for the user to select. This tip will show you how to use an enumeration to populate your lists.

.NET Tip: Display All Fields and Properties of an Object
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 11/30/2007
Learn how to display all of the fields and properties of any object. By using a little reflection, you can expose the internals of your objects.

Build a Windows Event Log Watcher Service Process to Export Event Log Entries as an RSS Feed
Rating: none
aleksisa - 11/13/2007
Build a Windows Event Log Watcher Service Process to Export Event Log Entries as an RSS feed using System.Diagnostics.EventLog, EntryWritten, and EnableRaisingEvents.

FreeDOM (Programming)
Rating: none
VectorX - 11/12/2007
Learn about FreeDOM (Free Document Object Model), a web development technique used to create event-driven web applications. FreeDOM is designed to overcome the limitations of stateless HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) transmissions.

.NET Tip: Passing a Variable Number of Arguments to a Method
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 11/09/2007
Have you ever not known how many parameters a method would need to accept? The C# params keyword lets you pass a variable number of arguments to a method.

.NET Tip: Type Casting and Comparison Using "as" and "is"
Rating: none
Jay Miller - 09/28/2007
Use some of the language's lesser known features for safe type casting and comparison.

[Updated] Programatically Add Exceptions to a Windows Firewall Using C#
Rating:
Daniela Ilea - 08/31/2007
Learn how to programatically add exceptions to a Windows Firewall using C#.

Speeding Up .NET
Rating:
Bill Hatfield - 07/31/2007
.NET programmers can become a little lazy when it comes to performance optimization. Discover a few easy tips to keep performance at a peak!

XSD Tutorial: XML Schemas For Beginners
Rating:
Simon Sprott - 05/24/2007
This five-part article gives a basic overview of the building blocks underlying XML Schemas, showing how and when to use them.

Integrating .NET and SAP 101
Rating: none
Paul Kimmel - 04/04/2007
SAP integration with Windows is possible and basic operations aren't too difficult but can be challenging. Here you will find an opener for VB.NET programmers who might be working on an SAP implementation and integration with non-SAP systems.

[Updated] Developing For Windows Vista
Rating: none
Bradley Jones - 04/03/2007
There's a lot more to Vista than the .NET 3.0 framework. The new OS offers interesting and useful new features for developers-and DevX has rounded them up for you.

Creating VB.NET Public Methods That Accept Optional Arguments
Rating: none
Bill Hatfield - 03/28/2007
Learn to provide flexibility in the ways your public method can be called by using Visual Basic .NET's three different approaches for specifying optional parameters.

VB .NET Tip: Assembly Deployment Best Practices
Rating: none
Bill Hatfield - 03/07/2007
If maintaining your code is important to you, take note of these few assembly deployment best practices.

.NET Tip: Exiting a Try/Catch Block
Rating:
Eric Smith - 02/16/2007
If you use a return statement within a Try/Catch block, there's a behavior you need to be aware of in your code.

.NET Tip: Comparing Strings Safely
Rating: none
Eric Smith - 12/11/2006
The .NET Framework's built-in comparison functions don't handle nulls properly. Learn a couple of functions to take care of this for you.

What ADO.NET Teaches Us about Custom Objects
Rating:
Paul Kimmel - 11/29/2006
Why do so many .NET programmers prefer to write custom objects instead of using ADO.NET objects? More control, for one. Read on to find out the other reasons.

Testing with Mock Objects
Rating: none
Dan Gartner - 10/24/2006
Mock objects can be created to act as stand-ins for actual implementations in order to isolate unit tests. This makes it easier to detect defects during development. Discover how to create your own mock objects using NMock 2.0.

.NET Tip: Creating and Using Your Own Events
Rating: none
Eric Smith - 09/20/2006
Simply registering for a custom event and running your code when the event occurs makes managing the sequence of events within a Web page easier.

.NET Tip: Create a Custom Configuration Section in .NET 2.0
Rating: none
Eric Smith - 06/30/2006
Creating a custom configuration section in your configuration class will make it more modular and not reliant on the generic appSettings section in the configuration file.

Satellite Assemblies
Rating:
Jayant Kulkarni - 02/09/2006
Discover what satellite assemblies are, how to create them, and how to use satellite assemblies with strong named assemblies with very simple and small pieces of code chunks.

TIP: Playing a WAV File with C# 2.0
Rating:
Bradley Jones - 12/29/2005
Playing a sound in C# 2.0 couldn't get much easier!

Refactoring VB in Visual Studio 2005
Rating:
Paul Kimmel - 12/21/2005
Refactoring can improve the internal structure of your VB code without changing its external behavior. Use it to remove the subjectivity of what is good code and what is less-good code.

Programming with the My Feature
Rating:
Paul Kimmel - 11/21/2005
Part code-generating factory, part proxy pattern, and part façade pattern, the My feature makes VB.NET a little simpler to use by acting as a cue for the VB compiler to substitute it with more verbose code.

Time Management Tips for Developers
Rating:
Alexander Fedorenko - 09/09/2005
Learn about a few time management principles that can make our lives more successful and improve software and Web development.

[Updated] TIP: A Quick Way to Write Public Properties in C#
Rating:
pete# - 08/15/2005
Learn about a very quick and easy way to create public properties for member variables inside a class using regular expressions.

Script CallBack In ASP.NET 1.1
Rating:
sndshreeman - 05/23/2005
Learn how to implement the script callback features in ASP.NET 1.1 using XMLHTTP.

[Updated] Console with a WinForm
Rating:
Wilfried Mestdagh - 04/13/2005
Often, you need a Console window in a WinForm application for easy debugging or logging purposes. Learn how to do this.

.NET Regular Expressions and Captures
Rating: none
Tom Archer - MSFT - 03/30/2005
Learn the subtle differences between groups and captures in .NET regular expressions and how to suppress capture information when your applications don't need it.

[Updated] FileSystemWatcher—Why Does It Stop Working?
Rating:
Zeb - 02/15/2005
Ever wondered why, when using FileSystemWatcher over a network drive, it seems to forget what it's supposed to do? This article aims to explain the problem and show you how to solve it.

Writing Verifiably Type-Safe Code in Visual C++
Rating:
Nick Wienholt - 12/07/2004
In the first two releases of Visual Studio.NET, writing verifiably type-safe code with C++ went from impossible to extremely difficult. Thankfully, Visual C++.NET 2005 offers a much better story on verification than the current compiler.


Tools and 3rd Party


Is RFID Still Important?
Rating: none
Bradley Jones - 08/26/2008
A short interview with Microsoft on RFID technology.

Windows PE 2.0 Tutorial
Rating: none
Anpino - 06/12/2008
Learn how to build a custom Windows image running a windows application like Vista installation.

[Updated] XML Data Binding
Rating:
Simon Sprott - 07/17/2007
XML Data Binding allows you to manipulate an XML document via a set of simple objects. Learn about the generation of these objects, and see a summary of the existing products on the market.

DocMounter Help File Builder
Rating: none
10Tec - 03/20/2007
Tool for creating MS Visual Studio XML documentation files. These files can be used in Visual Studio, and to get the modern help using such tools as NDoc and SandCastle.

Creating Crystal Reports Using the Push Method in .NET
Rating:
Kelvin McKisic - 02/21/2007
Learn how to use datasets to power Crystal Reports, without the need for a server-based database.

[Updated] RFID Programming Made Simple and Cheap
Rating:
Bradley Jones - 12/07/2006
Using RFID hardware and incorporating RFID tag information into your applications can really be quite simple. See what can be done with less than $100 and no more than a few dozen lines of code.

Pirin: .NET Solution Generation Tool
Rating: none
Petar Shomov - 12/07/2006
Learn about a tool that helps generate customized Visual Studio 2003/2005 solutions.

Multithreaded Programming Using CSP.NET
Rating: none
Martin Nebelong Olsen - 09/05/2006
Read a short introduction to multithreaded programming with CSP.NET, which is a simple and intuitive alternative to standard thread programming.

JavaServer Faces and ASP.NET - A Side by Side Look
Rating:
Michael Klaene - 12/23/2005
Take a look at a high-level comparison of two popular technologies available to web application developers - JavaServer Faces (JSF) and ASP.NET.

Are You Confused Yet?
Rating:
Bradley Jones - 10/27/2005
Editorial: In the ever rampant word of technology and changes, it is easy to get confused. Consider C# and what is being discussed in the market...

Create and Edit Office Documents with .NET
Rating:
Dino Esposito - 05/04/2005
Get a jump on the growing need to create and edit Office documents (mostly Word and Excel documents) programmatically from .NET applications. Dino Esposito demonstrates two approaches.

Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2005 Released
Rating:
Bradley Jones - 04/17/2005
Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2005 is now available for download for MSDN subscribers. Learn how you can get it too.

[Updated] Enterprise Messaging in a Heterogeneous Environment
Rating:
Jeremy Thomas - 03/25/2005
Learn how to integrate C# and Java services into a single logical message bus using MSMQ and JMS.

Price of Visual Studio 2005 Announced
Rating: none
Bradley Jones - 03/22/2005
Microsoft has announced pricing on the Visual Studio 2005 product line.

"Indigo" CTP Released Today
Rating: none
Bradley Jones - 03/16/2005
Microsoft released the Community Technical Preview (CTP) of their next-generation Web-Services technology, "Indigo," today.

[Updated] Writing Your Own GPS Applications: Part I
Rating:
Jon Person - 12/29/2004
What is it that GPS applications need to be good enough to handle in-car navigation? Also, how does the process of interpreting GPS data actually work? This two-part series will cover both topics and give you the skills you need to write a commercial-grade GPS application that works with a majority of GPS devices in the industry today.

How to Integrate Google Searches into Your Application
Rating:
Klaus Salchner - 12/06/2004
Learn how to leverage Google's Internet search capabilities from within your application through Google's web service API. Complex query terms and filtering capabilities assure relevancy of the search results to your application needs.


Visual Studio .NET Add-Ins


Code Contracts in .NET
Rating:
Marius Bancila - 06/05/2009
This article introduces code contracts that specify statements in .NET programs that must prove valid.

Fix Performance Problems Fast: Advanced VSTS Profiler Use
Rating: none
Nick Wienholt - 03/04/2008
For large and complex applications, dealing with the amount of data collected can be difficult. See how the Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) Developer Edition Profiler can do an excellent job of finding performance problems by simply pointing it at an application and allowing it to collect data.

Lambda Expressions and Currying in VB9
Rating: none
Paul Kimmel - 11/19/2007
C++ programmers aren't the only ones who can write code so obtuse that it's nearly indecipherable. Now, VB9 programmers can compete with obscure code by using Lambda Expressions and Currying. But, is this a good thing? Explore Lambda Expressions and Currying, but the jury is still out whether or not currying is a good thing. It's definitely cool.

A First Look at Visual Studio 2008 Shell
Rating: none
Josh Fitzgerald - 08/10/2007
See what Visual Studio 2008 Shell has to offer and how it can help you.

[Updated] Deploy Your Applications and Components Using the Windows Installer
Rating:
Prabhakar Manikonda - 11/21/2006
Learn how to create setup programs without having the knowledge of setup scripts.

Data Driven Testing with Visual Studio Team Suite
Rating: none
Dan Gartner - 09/22/2006
Learn how Visual Studio Team Suite (VSTS) seamlessly integrates the development environment with a suite of robust testing products that make developers more efficient when testing their applications.

Extending Visual Studio 2005
Rating:
Vijay Mehta - 04/24/2006
Discover the fundamentals of the Visual Studio package and create your first Visual Studio 2005 Add-in.

Enterprise Library 2.0: The Logging Application Block
Rating: none
Vijay Mehta - 01/24/2006
Investigate some basic logging scenarios, explain and define some of the required terminology, and take the first steps to more efficient logging.

Visual Studio 2005: So Many Choices, So Much Marketing, So Little Time
Rating:
Paul Kimmel - 01/13/2006
Microsoft introduced new pricing schemes and changed its MSDN subscription programs with the launch of Visual Studio 2005. Find out which option is best for you.

Using Code Snippets in Visual Studio 2005
Rating: none
Paul Kimmel - 05/16/2005
Think .NET code snippets are just about dragging and dropping some reusable code into the toolbox? Guess again. Code snippets in Visual Studio 2005 are far more useful. Find out why overlooking them would be a mistake.

Creating Installer Patches with MSI 3.0
Rating:
Joseph Poozhikunnel - 04/26/2005
Today, it is common to have software patch releases due to various reasons. Discover the steps needed to create a patch using MSI 3.0.

Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 Now Available!
Bradley L. Jones - 04/17/2005
Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2005 is now available for download for MSDN subscribers. Learn how you can get it too.

Create Your Own Project Item Templates in VS 2005
Rating: none
Paul Kimmel - 04/15/2005
Visual Studio 2005 builds on the flexibility of XML to condense the process of creating templates. Paul Kimmel demonstrates how you can take advantage of this function.

Automate the Process of Documenting Your Code
Rating:
Klaus Salchner - 12/07/2004
Find out about the documentation capabilities of the Visual Studio .NET IDE. Learn how to improve the productivity within your development team and automate the generation of help files.