Helpful Visual Studio resources

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Whether you are just learning Visual Studio because you are building a phone app, or you have been using it for a few years, here are some of my favourite and most requested links for Visual Studio resources.

I taught developer courses for a number of years, and there were certain questions and requests that came up on a regular basis. In this post, I’ve compiled some of the most common requests I received from my students and listed the resources I shared.

Bing and Google are great if you are trying to find the syntax for a specific method, or a code example for a particular API. What can be harder is finding more general help and tips.

I hope these resources will help both new and experienced users of Visual Studio to help you get started or get more out of the tool you already have.

What edition should I buy?

I always have trouble finding this when I want it so here is the Visual Studio 2010 Comparison

What can I get for free?

Hey you are a student, you can get all kinds of stuff for free at Dreamspark! But when you graduate, or if you are talking to someone who is not at school, we have some free stuff for them as well

How can Visual Studio help with testing or aspects other than coding?

We often think of Visual Studio as just a tool to help us code, but it can help with the whole application lifecycle. There are some good intros to using Visual Studio as an ALM tool here. Interesting to explore for courses about the whole project lifecycle, and something you may encounter on summer jobs.

Microsoft Test Manager was added to Visual Studio and helps track test plans, test cases and more on your project. Learn more about how to get started with Test Manager here. Often at school we focus on unit testing, but there is a lot more than unit testing required to release software into production. Tracking which tests have been executed and what requirements they met is a big challenge on big projects so these types of tools really help.

I’ve been working with Visual Studio for a while, how do I find those “hidden” features?

Are there labs somewhere I can launch to try out the tool and features?

  • We have some Visual Studio 2010 labs you can launch online at Techdays Canada
  • The Visual Studio team has also made a Virtual Machine and a series of Visual Studio 11 labs you can download and try.

Where can I learn C#? VB .NET? F#?

I want to get certified on Web? Windows? Where do I start?

Check out this blog series that covers how to figure out what certification to take, the exams required, and some tips on how to prepare for the exam itself.

Looking for anything else, I suggest you check out...

MSDN Learning Visual Studio – helpful resources to help beginners and seasoned professionals build their skills.

Microsoft Learning Training Catalog – helps you find both online and in person training resources

Do you have any great resources or tips to share? Join us on the GoDevMental Facebook page and share it with other students!