MSDN Magazine
Click to Rate and Give Feedback
Popular Articles

This article introduces 10 development tools that can increase your productivity, give you a better understanding of .NET, and maybe even change the way that you develop applications. The tools covered include NUnit to write unit tests, Reflector to examine assemblies, FxCop to police your code, Regulator to build regular expressions, NDoc to create code documentation and five more.

James Avery

MSDN Magazine July 2004

...

Read more!

We introduce you to the benefits of building composite applications with the Composite Application Guidance for WPF from Microsoft patterns & practices.

Glenn Block

MSDN Magazine September 2008

...

Read more!

WPF is one of the most important new technologies in the .NET Framework 3.0. This month John Papa introduces its data binding capabilities.

John Papa

MSDN Magazine December 2007

...

Read more!

Kenny Kerr sings the praises of the new Visual C++ 2008 Feature Pack, which brings modern conveniences to Visual C++.

Kenny Kerr

MSDN Magazine May 2008

...

Read more!

Writing a Web application with ASP.NET is unbelievably easy. So many developers don't take the time to structure their applications for great performance. In this article, the author presents 10 tips for writing high-performance Web apps. The discussion is not limited to ASP.NET applications because they are just one subset of Web applications.

Rob Howard

MSDN Magazine January 2005

...

Read more!
December2005 December 2005
Power to the Pen: The Pen is Mightier with GDI+ and the Tablet PC Real-Time Stylus
Charles Petzold
Can't Commit?: Volatile Resource Managers in .NET Bring Transactions to the Common Type
Here Juval Lowy discusses the benefits you'll get when you implement transactions in your non-database applications, with a little help from volatile resource managers in the .NET Framework 2.0. Juval Lowy
UI on the Fly: Use the .NET Framework to Generate and Execute Custom Controls at Run Time
Creating UI controls on the fly can be accomplished via run-time code generation. And there are lots of reasons to do so. Generating these controls once and then reusing them as needed is more efficient than generating the controls each time. Read on. Morgan Skinner
Got Directory Services?: New Ways to Manage Active Directory using the .NET Framework 2.0
System.DirectoryServices is a managed code layer on top of Active Directory Service Interfaces, and you can employ it to better manage Active Directory from your code. Here Ethan Wilansky helps you get started. Ethan Wilansky
Ten Essential Tools: Visual Studio Add-Ins Every Developer Should Download Now
James Avery does it again with his popular list of developer tools. This time he covers the best Visual Studio add-ins available today that you can download for free. James Avery
Code Download (748 KB)
.Chm Files

Columns
Editor's Note: The Dark Side of Being a Guru
Back in the September 2005 issue of MSDN Magazine, we offered advice to our readers on how to become a guru. Perhaps "guru" is too strong a word, but it conveys the essence of our thoughts on the subject.
New Stuff: Resources for Your Developer Toolbox
Databeacon Smart Client software allows users to perform data analysis, turning relational data from any data source into online analytical processing (OLAP) cubes that can be explored and manipulated using one of three Databeacon viewers. Marnie Hutcheson
Advanced Basics: What's My IP Address?
If you're like me, you regularly do tech-support for family, friends, and neighbors. You can't go to a party without hearing the familiar refrain: "I've just got a quick question. " It's always something—their Internet connections get dropped, they've got a virus, they can't install some piece of hardware, or some file has gone missing. Ken Getz
Test Run: Software Testing Paradoxes
Paradoxes are fun. In this month's column I show you three interesting cases that can occur when you are performing software testing. They're fundamentally mathematical in nature, and they can be a useful addition to your troubleshooting arsenal. James McCaffrey
Cutting Edge: Flexible Custom Data Views
ASP. NET 1. x introduced some powerful and useful data-bound controls. However, none were designed specifically to manage the view of a single record. When you build master/detail views, you need to display the contents of a single record. Dino Esposito
Service Station: An XML Guru's Guide to BizTalk, Part 2
In my last column, I provided a brief introduction to BizTalk® Server 2004 for XML developers (see Service Station: An XML Guru's Guide to BizTalk Server 2004, Part I). I covered the product evolution, core architecture, and several aspects of the underlying messaging layer, all of which have helped make BizTalk Server 2004 the powerful integration technology it is today. Aaron Skonnard
.NET Matters: BigInteger, GetFiles, and More
Stephen Toub
Pure C++: Reflecting on Generic Types
A funny thing happened to templates on their way to the common language runtime (CLR)—they lost their {type} identity. This is analogous to what happens with macros under native programs. Just as the C/C++ compilers have no awareness of macro preprocessor expansions, the CLR has no awareness of template instantiations. Stanley B. Lippman
C++ at Work: Layered Windows, Blending Images
Paul DiLascia
{End Bracket}: Trustworthy Software
The Authenticode dialog box that users see when they download software from the Internet, asking them if they trust the publisher and want to install the software is, in my opinion, a useless and annoying waste of time that provides no safety whatsoever. David S. Platt
Page view tracker