I’ve had some people ask for this list so I’m putting it up here for everyone. Below is my outline from Wednesday night’s Springfield .NET Users group meeting presentation. These are all of the new VS2010 features that I covered. Enjoy!

New VS2010 Features

• Visual
  • IDE redesigned for improved readability
    • Unnecessary lines and gradients removed
  • Multi-monitor support
    • Document windows (Code Editor, Design View, etc.) can be placed outside of the IDE window.
      • Code Editor & Design View can now be viewed side-by-side

• Performance
  • Start-up is faster
  • Add References Dialog is faster

• Code Editor
  • Zoom
  • Clicking a symbol highlights all instances of that symbol
    • Move to next/previous with Shift+Ctrl+Up/Down
  • Box Selection Enhancements
    • Box selection Alt+Select or Shift+Alt+Arrow (available prior to 2010)
    • Text Insertion: Type into a box to insert new text on every line
    • Paste Contents of one box to another
    • Zero-Length boxes
  • Navigate To
    • Edit > Navigate To
    • Upper case characters make the search case-sensitive
    • Wildcard, regex, and boolean operators not supported

• Intellisense
  • "Contains"
  • Camel case
  • Completion v. Suggestion Mode
    • Suggestion mode doesn't insert the suggested intellisense item
    • Toggle Mode: Ctrl+Alt+Space when intellisense menu is visible.

• Debugging
  • Data Tips: Tool tip watch windows
    • "Stick" & "Float" debug values to the code editor
    • Like floating watch window
    • Scrolls with code
    • Hides when new file is viewed
    • Can add comments
    • Can be imported/exported (as .xml)
      • From debug > export datatips
  • Break points window
    • Can label break points
    • Search and filter on labels
    • Helps manage break points
    • Can be imported/exported (as .xml)
      • From break point window
  • Thread Window
    • Flag Just my Code > Group by Flagged > Collapse un-flagged - shows just my threads
    • Search by field values
    • Inline Call stack expansion
      • Click arrow in location field
    • Search call stacks
    • Thread arrow
  • Save a mini dump
    • While VS breaks on an error > Debug > Save Dump
    • VS can now open a .dmp file directly (not file > open project)
  • Historical Debugger (Team System, Managed Code only, 32 bit only)
    • Tools > Options > Historical Debugging
    • Allows you to step back in time

• WPF & Silverlight Designer
  • Silverlight Designer support (VS2008 was read-only)
  • Drag-and-Drop data binding in WPF
    • Binding building dialog
  • Debugging - WPF Tree Visualizer

Last week I found my new favorite Visual Studio 2008 productivity tool: TemporaryMacro. You can find this functionality in Tools > Macros > Record/Run TemporaryMacro. Being a shortcut-junkie though, I prefer Ctrl+Shift+R and Ctrl+Shift+P for recording and playing respectively.

The Macro feature in Visual Studio is one of those things that I’ve always been aware of, but have never really taken advantage of because I didn’t want to manage a library of macros. The TemporaryMacro feature is a quick and easy to use “throw away” macro and great for tedious text modifications.

Example Usage
This is a simple example, but yesterday I had pasted a digital certificate thumbprint into a .config file. The thumbprint had a space every two characters, that wasn’t necessary. To remove the spaces, I had to press: Right > Right > Delete for all 19 spaces that I wanted to remove.

With macros I started the recorder by pressing Ctrl+Shift+R. I pressed Right > Right > Delete to remove the first space. I then pressed Ctrl+Shift+R to stop the macro recording. Then I quickly pressed Ctrl+Shift+P 18 more times to replay the macro removing the remaining spaces.

Useful Text Manipulation Shortcuts
The record > replay process takes a tiny bit of forethought because you need to consider how executing the macro repeatedly will behave. You also need to think about the edge case of your final replay as you may accidentally change text that you didn’t intend to change. I use these shortcuts all of the time, but I find that within the context of macros I use them differently to affect the behavior of the text manipulation replays.

Arrow – Move the cursor left or right one character or up or down one line.
Shift+Arrow – Select text while moving cursor moves up, down, left, or right.
Ctrl+Left (or Right) – Move the cursor left or right one word at a time.
Shift+Ctrl+Left (or Right) – Select text while moving left or right one word at a time.
End – Move the cursor to the end of the line.
Ctrl+End – Move the cursor to the end of the file.
Home – Move the cursor to the beginning of text for the current line.
Home (a second time) – Move the cursor to the begging of the line.
Shift+{any of the home/end combinations} – Select text while moving the cursor.
Ctrl+Home – Move the cursor to the beginning of the file.
Shift+Delete – Delete the entire line.

It may feel slow at first, but I promise you that if you stick with it, the TemporaryMacro will become a frequent tool in your daily coding habits.

I tried installing SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition on a Windows 7 machine yesterday and ran into some issues that I thought I’d note here. I also re-learned a lesson about carefully reading error messages. The solution was simple, but I made it more difficult than it should have been. Hopefully this will help you when you decide to install SQL Server 2008 on a Win7 machine and also serve as a reminder that slow down and pay attention.

Windows 7 Known Compatibility Issues
When I first ran the SQL Server 2008 install, Windows 7 displayed a message box alerting me that there are known compatibility issues for SQL Server 2008 on Windows 7.  You will want to remember to install SQL Server 2008 SP1 after successfully installing SQL Server 2008. For now, you can ignore this warning and continue with the install.

Rule Check – Previous releases of Visual Studio 2008
After choosing my install options and setting up configurations, the install failed with the Rule Check Result: “Previous releases of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008”. If you click the Failed link you will see instruction that Visual Studio 2008 SP1.

Installing VS2008 SP1 and re-starting the install corrected my problem.

The Lesson
For me the issue was mental sleight of hand. Since installing software is a no-brainer task, I was doing other things while the install ran. When the install first started, I made the mental note that I needed to install SQL Server 2008 SP1. Near the end of the install when the rule check failed for previous versions of Visual Studio 2008, I literally thought that it said SQL Server 2008.

I was pretty sure that I hadn’t installed SQL Server 2008 yet, but thought that maybe I had put an Express edition on there or something. I searched my installed programs and services, but didn’t find anything. I even tried installing SQL Server 2008 SP1. Only after reading through some blog posts about SQL Server 2008 compatibility issues on Windows 7 did I realize that I had misread the error message.

When reading error messages and stack traces from my own applications, I’m diligent about reading them closely, but I simply underestimated the level of attention that this install required. Whoops!