I recently downloaded Visual Studio 2010 from Microsoft’s Dreamspark website. After a nearly 2 hour install completed, I promptly opened it up and started exploring.
The first time opened it I noticed that the user interface is drawn with WPF. Now I’m not opposed to this but, the code editor window just doesn’t seem as responsive as earlier versions. This may just be due to the fact that its running on a 4 year old single-core laptop.
The next thing I checked out was the extension manager. With it you can browse for your favorite extensions without opening the browser. It also can check for updated extensions automatically.
In Visual Studio 2008, coding in C# had its downsides compared to VB. For example, Intellisense only triggered when accessing a member and if you did not spell the member’s parent correctly you get nothing. This has been fixed in VS2010. I am now able to type my using statements with ease.
I have not been able to try it with multiple monitors since I only have one at the moment. Although, it does sound like a neat feature.
Overall I do like this new version of Visual Studio. It has some neat features and I’m still exploring.
