Chapter 1 Exploring the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment 7
Troubleshooting If you see an error message indicating that the project you want to
open is in a newer file format, you might be trying to load Visual Basic 2010 files into
an older version of the Visual Basic software. (Earlier versions of Visual Basic can’t open
the Visual Basic 2010 projects included on the companion CD .) To check which version
of Visual Basic you’re using, click the About command on the Help menu.Visual Studio provides a special check box named Always Show Solution to control several
options related to solutions within the IDE. The check box is located on the Projects
and Solutions/General tab of the Options dialog box, which you open by clicking the Options
command on the Tools menu. If the check box is selected, a subfolder is created for each new
solution, placing the project and its files in a separate folder beneath the solution. Also, if
you select the Always Show Solution check box, a few options related to solutions appear in
the IDE, such as commands on the File menu and a solution entry in Solution Explorer. If you
like the idea of creating separate folders for solutions and seeing solution-related commands
and settings, select this check box. You’ll learn more about these options at the end of the
chapter.Projects and Solutions
In Visual Studio, programs under development are typically called projects or solutions
because they contain many individual components, not just one file. Visual Basic 2010
programs include a project file ( .vbproj) and a solution file ( .sln), and if you examine
these files within a file browsing utility such as Windows Explorer, you’ll notice that the
solution file icons have a tiny 10 in them, an indication of their version number. (Visual
Basic 2010 is referred to as VB 10 internally .)A project file contains information specific to a single programming task. A solution file
contains information about one or more projects. Solution files are useful to manage
multiple related projects. The samples included with this book typically have a single
project for each solution, so opening the project file ( .vbproj) has the same effect as
opening the solution file ( .sln). But for a multi-project solution, you will want to open
the solution file. Visual Basic 2010 offers a new file format for its projects and solutions,
but the basic terminology that you might have learned while using Visual Basic 2005
or 2008 still applies.The Visual Studio Tools
At this point, you should take a few moments to study the Visual Studio IDE and identify
some of the programming tools and windows that you’ll be using as you complete this
course. If you’ve written Visual Basic programs before, you’ll recognize many (but perhaps