Chapter 3. Windows Applications

.NET 1.0 introduced a whole new toolkit for writing Windows applications. This toolkitcalled Windows Formsquickly won the hearts of developers with its rich features for creating self-sizing windows, customized controls, and dynamic graphics. But for all its strengths, the Windows Forms toolkit left out a few features that many VB 6 developers had come to expect, including a masked edit control and a way to display HTML web pages. The Windows Forms toolkit also lacked some of the frills found in modern Windows applications, like Office XP-style toolbars and menus with thumbnail images. As you'll see in this chapter, .NET 2.0 includes all of these elements and more.