I am currently publishing code behind .aspx in SharePoint. I can automatically publish the .dll to the bin folder of the virtual directory, but I cannot figure out how to push the .aspx pages and images to the server without manually using SharePoint Designer.
Where does the folder exist? Or do I need to create a SharePoint feature for this?
I fully recommend getting the hang of STSDev and using solutions and features to release any real customisations.
It takes extra work to figure out how it works, but it is worth it when trying to release things reliably and repeatable to different environments.
The power of a feature reciever that allows you to make changes to your sites automagically is very useful.
The .aspx files are under C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\templates\layouts
A quick and very dirty way to deploy new functionality (which is accessible to everything on the server) is to drop aspx's into this folder. This is not safe, but gives you a way to test things before investing the time to do a full blown solution/feature deployment.
I suggest reading up on Andrew Connell's development methods, I think he has a book for doing sharepoint development out too. His 'developing sharepoint features' talk is the best jumpstart into doing sharepoint development I've heard. http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/