My First VS2005 C# App: MSNBC Newspaper App

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I finally got around to building my first app with Visual Studio 2005. And no, I am not the only Microsoftee who doesn't write code for a living. Thankfully Betsy Aoki just posted a good writeup about her first VB.NET programming class. I built what I consider a personalized online newspaper app. Here’s how:

  1. Visual Studio 2005 (I think I am using the Visual C# 2005 Express Edition Beta)
  2. Create a New Project
  3. The Type of Project is: Visual C# - Windows Application (could be VB.NET too I suppose)
  4. Set the Form (Form1) properties to:
    • Text: MSNBC Newspaper
    • (a cool one to use is FormBorderStyle: None - but then you have to use Alt+F4 to close the application. So, I suggest using the default FormBorderStyle:Sizable)
    • WindowState: Maximized
  5. Drag the Web Browser control from the Toolbox to the form
  6. Set the Browser Control (webBrowser1) properties to:
  7. Save the project as “MSNBC Newspaper”
  8. Build the project
  9. Publish the project (I published it to “c:\temp\MSNBC Newspaper”)
  10. Then go to “c:\temp\MSNBC Newspaper” and run setup.exe to install your new application. It will then show up under Start/Programs/Microsoft

And that’s it: 10 lines of instructions, no code, and a fully installable and versionable application that I can use as customized my morning newspaper. Of course, I wish I could add RSS feeds into MSNBC’s newsbot page.