Books or other resources for learning Visual Studio?

Question

Some background: I used Visual Studio quite a bit back in the pre-.Net days, and I'm now moving towards using it again. In the interveining years, I've been doing a lot of coding in other environments (Java, Python, Perl, C++, embedded C, lots of HTML/CSS/Javascript, etc) as well as a fair amount of .Net work that just didn't use Visual Studio.

In addition the .Net stuff I've done has been very "hotrodded". Strange corporate environments and coding standards that really aren't in any way consistent with the way Microsoft wants it done, .net web apps written in the style of classic ASP apps, those kind of things.

This all puts me in the somewhat strange position of having multiple years worth of .Net experience on my resume, and I haven't touched Visual Studio since about 1999.

I've downloaded the Express Editions, and I suspect that the few things I remember from a decade ago are actually hurting my VS effectiveness.

So, what I'm looking for is a basic primer on using Visual Studio (and to a lesser extent .Net and C#) "The Official Microsoft way."

I don't need a chapter on what a variable is, but I could use a solid guide on what all those options when you start a new project are. (Also, things like how to deploy a correctly-written web app. And the difference between a project and a solution. And so forth.)

Most of what I've seen out there has been focused on either teaching a language with only passing references to the IDE ("press F5 to compile!") or has been tightly focused on the really advanced features.

Can anyone recommend some learning resources? I like books, but solid websites / tutorials / clay tablets are also good.

Answer 1

You could use the video's from LearnVisualStudio.net There are also number of resources on dimecasts.net.

However I take issue with

'the right way'

as you put it. There are many ms standards and advice that I've found to be not as practical in the real world as they appear in the demos and tutorials. VS is a great tool but that's all it is. Yes it sometimes helps to do things the easy way to stop vs from complaining. But sometimes you have to jump hurdles to achieve some goal. However if you want to learn how to do things the 'ms' way there are any number of books but you're right they do tend to have 'this is a variable and this is a class' etc. I suppose this is to get to the widest possible book purchasing market. For more detailed info I tend find blogs like Sara Ford's vs tip of the day rather good for some advanced vs tricks, rather than books.

Edit: To answer comment.

Since your goal is to pass interviews, then I'd suggest you view the above videos and also follow the ms hand on labs, I'd also suggest the book 'What Colour Is Your Parachute'

Answer 2

Sara Ford has a blog that used to publish tips & tricks about Visual Studio.

Nowadays she is working in CodePlex, but you'll still fine a lot of good stuff in her blog.

You'll also find there a link to her book Visual Studio Tips

http://blogs.msdn.com/SaraFord/

UPDATE: The official Visual Studio page on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/default.aspx