Chapter 1: Opening and Running an ASP.NET Web Application

Overview

In this chapter, you will learn how to:

• Start Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.

• Open and run an ASP.NET application.

• Work with tool windows.

• Exit Visual Studio .NET.

Microsoft ASP.NET is not just an upgrade—not by a long shot. ASP.NET provides the most advanced Web development platform created to date. What’s more, ASP.NET has been rebuilt from the ground up to create an entirely new and more flexible infrastructure for Web development.

What makes ASP.NET so revolutionary is that it’s based on Microsoft’s new .NET platform, or more accurately the Microsoft .NET Framework. To understand clearly where and when to use ASP.NET, let’s take some time to go over the Microsoft .NET platform, the products that it comprises, and where ASP.NET fits within Microsoft .NET.