Datasheet

Part I: IDE

follow. The other chapters in this part of the book provide much more detail about particular tasks such

as using the IDE’s menus, customizing menus and toolbars, and using the Windows Form Designer to

build forms.

Different IDE Appearance

Before you start reading about the IDE and viewing screen shots, it’s important to understand that the

Visual Studio IDE is extremely customizable. You can move, hide, or modify the menus, toolbars, and

windows; create your own toolbars; dock, undock, or rearrange the toolbars and windows; and change

the behavior of the built-in text editors (change their indentation, colors for different kinds of text, and

so forth). These chapters describe the basic Visual Studio development environment as it is initially

installed. After you’ve moved things around to suit your needs, your IDE may look nothing like the

pictures in this book.

To avoid confusion, you should probably not customize the IDE’s basic menus and toolbars too much.

Removing the help commands from the Help menu and adding them to the Edit menu will only cause

confusion later. Moving or removing commands will also make it more difficult to follow the examples

in this and other books, and will make it more difficult to follow instructions given by others who might

be able to help you when you have problems.

Instead of making drastic changes to the default menus and toolbars, hide the menus and toolbars that

you don’t want and create new customized toolbars to suit your needs. Then you can find the original

standard toolbars if you decide you need them later. Chapter 3 , “Customization,” has more to say about

rearranging the IDE’s components.

There are several other reasons why Visual Studio on your system may not look exactly like the screens

shown in this book. Visual Studio looks different on different operating systems. The figures in this book

were taken on a computer running Windows Vista so they display the distinctive Vista look and feel.

This computer was using the Aero Glass style, so the forms use large, translucent borders and other Aero

decorations. You may see a different appearance, even if you are using Vista and you have selected

another style, or if Vista thinks your hardware won’t support Aero nicely. Additionally, some commands

may not behave exactly the same way on different operating systems.

In addition to its new Aero appearance, new features in Vista also include a new User Account Control

(UAC) security model. When you first log on, all accounts get a normal level of user privileges. Later,

when you try to run certain applications that require increased permissions, a UAC privilege elevation

dialog box appears where you can enter an administrator password. The examples in this book were tested

using a normal user account, so you should not see that dialog while running them, but you may see it if

you use other development tools. Chapter 24 , “UAC Security,” provides more details about UAC.

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