Availability of Features in Visual Studio Versions
The following table shows whether certain features are supported in the listed versions of Visual Studio Professional.
"Yes" means that the Visual Studio version includes the feature.
"Add On" means that the Visual Studio version does not include the feature, but it is available and you can get more information by clicking the link.
"No" means that the Visual Studio version does not include the feature.
Visual Studio 2005 with SP |
Visual Studio 2008 |
Visual Studio 2008 SP1 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
Supported .NET Framework versions |
2.0 |
2.0, 3.0, 3.5 |
2.0, 3.0, 3.5 SP1 |
Local Web Server |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
SQL Server Express |
2005 |
2005 |
2008 |
Connect to SQL Server versions through Server Explorer |
2000, 2005, 2008 |
2000, 2005, 2008 |
2000, 2005, 2008 |
ASP.NET AJAX 1 |
Yes |
||
ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC) |
No |
||
ASP.NET Dynamic Data |
No |
No |
Yes |
MSBuild |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
ADO.NET Entity Framework |
No |
No |
Yes |
ADO.NET Data Services |
No |
No |
Yes |
Windows Azure Tools |
No |
No |
|
Smart Devices |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Parallel Computing |
No |
||
Windows Communication Foundation |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Windows Presentation Foundation |
Yes |
Yes |
|
.NET Rich Internet Application (RIA) Services |
No |
No |
|
Silverlight 1 |
No |
||
Silverlight 2 |
No |
No |
|
Silverlight 3 |
No |
No |
|
Visual Studio Tools for Office |
Yes 2 |
Yes |
|
Report Projects |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Report Wizard |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) |
No |
Yes (except LINQ to Entities, which is part of EF) |
Yes |
.NET Framework Client Profile support |
No |
No |
Yes |
Power Packs, controls and components |
Add On (version 2) |
Add On (version 3) |
Yes |
ASP.NET AJAX:
Server-side: The controls are included in ASP.NET 3.5, and are already in the Toolbox in Visual Studio and Visual Web Developer. If you are using an earlier version of ASP.NET, for example, ASP.NET 2.0, then you can download the ASP.NET AJAX Extensions.
Client-side: The client-side ASP.NET AJAX Library is included in ASP.NET 3.5 SP1.
Visual Studio Tools for Office compatibility and add-in functionality:
The runtimes for versions 2003, 2005, and 3.0 are installed in side-by-side (SxS) mode. The Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005 SE runtime replaces the earlier 2005 runtime. All older Visual Studio Tools for Office solutions will continue to run in newer versions of the Office system as long as the runtime against which they were developed is installed. Solutions developed against later versions of the Office system will not work in earlier versions Visual Studio Tools for Office because they lack the required Primary Interop Assemblies (PIAs). Design-time support is as follows.
Office 2003, Document-level
Office 2003, Application-level
Office 2007, Document-level
Office 2007, Application-level
Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005
Word, Excel
Outlook
—
—
Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005 SE
(Requires Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005 for document-level customizations)
Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visio
InfoPath
Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visio, InfoPath
Visual Studio Tools for Office 3.0
Word, Excel (Builds against the Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005/2005 SE runtime)
Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visio, Project (Builds against the Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005 SE runtime)
Word, Excel, InfoPath
Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visio, InfoPath, Project, SharePoint 2007 Workflows
See Also
Other Resources
Application Development in Visual Studio
Change History
Date |
History |
Reason |
|---|---|---|
December 2009 |
Added topic. |
Information enhancement. |