What You Need to Use This Book

Although it is possible to create Visual Basic applications using the command-line tools contained in the .NET Framework SDK, you need Visual Studio 2005 (Professional or higher), which includes the .NET Framework SDK, to get the most out of this book. You may use Visual Studio .NET 2002 or Visual Studio 2003 instead, but in some cases the exercises won’t work because functionalities and capabilities are not available in these older versions. In addition, note the following:

• You need .NET Framework 3.0 (which will install the .NET Framework 2.0 by default if it isn’t already present on the machine).

• Some chapters make use of SQL Server 2005, but you can also run the example code using Microsoft’s SQL Express, which ships with Visual Studio 2005.

• Several chapters make use of Internet Information Services (IIS). IIS ships with Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows XP, although it is not installed by default.

• Chapter 28 makes use of MSMQ to work with queued transactions. MSMQ ships with Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows XP, although it is not installed by default.