Microsoft is moving forward with its suite of development tools and runtime environment, already cooking the successors of Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5. Unveiled at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles at the end of October 2008, Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 can be already downloaded by end-users as Community Technology Preview releases. However, Microsoft is offering, at the same time, the Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Training Kit, a collection of resources designed to familiarize developers with the future versions of Visual Studio and .NET Framework.

“If you're interested in learning more about what's coming in the VS 2010/.NET 4.0 wave, check out the 'Visual Studio 2010 & .NET 4.0 Training Kit' (November Preview). It includes presentations, hands-on labs, and demos. This content is designed to help you learn how to utilize the Visual Studio 2010 features and a variety of framework technologies including: C# 4.0, Visual Basic 10, F#, Parallel Computing Platform, WCF, WF, WPF, ASP.NET AJAX 4.0, ASP.NET MVC Dynamic Data,” revealed Chris Bowen, developer evangelist for Microsoft's Northeast district.

Via the Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Training Kit, Microsoft is offering an overview of both products, and additional information, at the same time. Developers will be able to access insights on the evolution of .NET Framework 3.5 to 4.0, as well as on the enhancements and new features introduced in Visual Studio. Of course, with the CTP bits available for download, all the improvements and new technologies can be tried at first hand.

Bowen ennumerated the Hands-On Labs included in the Training Kit as comprising “Visual Studio 2010: Office Programmability; Visual Studio 2010: Test Driven Development; Parallel Extensions: Building Multicore Applications with .NET; Introduction To Managed Extensibility Framework; ASP.NET AJAX; ASP.NET Dynamic Data; Intro To Project "Velocity"; Intro To F#. To try these labs, you can download a VPC with the CTP of .NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010,” he said.

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Training Kit - November Preview is available for download here.

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Community Technology Preview (CTP) is available for download here.