Chapter 2 Writing Your First Program 39
application project in this exercise, this dialog box is also the gateway to other types
of development projects, such as a Web application, console application, Microsoft
Office add-in, Windows Azure Cloud Service, Silverlight application, or Visual Studio
deployment project.
Near the top of the New Project dialog box, you will notice a drop-down list box.
This feature allows you to specify the version of the Microsoft .NET Framework that
your application will target. This feature is sometimes called multi-targeting, meaning
that through it, you can select the target environment that your program will run on.
For example, if you retain the default selection of .NET Framework 4, any computer that
your application will run on must have .NET Framework 4 installed. (Not to worry—the
.NET Framework is usually installed as part of the operating system installation, or when
you install a new Visual Basic program that you have written .) Unless you have a specific
need, you can just leave this drop-down list at its default setting of .NET Framework 4.
Visual Basic 2010 Express does not include this drop-down list. You’ll learn more about
the .NET Framework in Chapter 5, “Visual Basic Variables and Formulas, and the .NET
Framework .”- Click the Windows Forms Application icon in the central Templates area of the dialog
box, if it is not already selected.
Visual Studio prepares the development environment for Visual Basic Windows
application programming.