Looking into Visual Studio 2005 and its first Service Pack

These latter items include:

• Support for Core Duo processors for code generation and code profiling
• Improvements in both scaling and performance for the Team Foundation Server that can underlie Visual Studio (especially in the enterprise)
• Integration of Team Foundation Server with Excel 2007 and Project 2007
• Tools that provide support for occasionally connected devices as well as SQL Server Compact Edition (both associated with itinerant mobile devices)
• More and better support for project file-based Web applications
• Platform and tools support for Windows Embedded 6.0

More on VS 2005 SP 1 Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 now available  Service Packs available for Visual Studio 2005 Express editions

Also among these elements you'll find what Microsoft calls its "Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Vista Refresh Beta," an update to SP1 for developers working with Visual Studio 2005 on Vista machines. Now that Vista is on the street, it's just a matter of (a short) time before this beta gets wrapped up, and becomes available as a fully warranted add-on to SP1 for those developers who need it.

You can read more about this Service Pack on the Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Web page, where you'll also find links to the following items in the Microsoft Download Center:

• Visual Studio 2005 SP1: This is where you'll find updates for Standard, Professional, and Team editions of this platform.
• Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server SP1: This adds stability and security enhancements to TFS, along with new features that include custom controls, extranet support, Office 2007 support, more detailed merge histories, and the ability to migrate SQL 2005 Analysis Server onto a different machine.
• Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions SP1: This provides SP1 code for the free, lightweight version of Visual Studio 2005.
• Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta: This targets Visual Studio 2005 developers already working on Vista; it precedes the full release of this update expected some time in the next two or three months.
• All interested parties will probably also want to grab the release notes for SP1 as well.

This material is well worth grabbing and digging into. It may require some planning to slipstream the service pack into your organization's development environment, but that's probably a matter of "when" not "if."

Ed Tittel is a writer and trainer whose interests include XML and development topics, along with IT Certification and information security. E-mail etittel@techtarget.com with comments, questions, or suggested topics or tools to review. Cool tools rule!

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