Over the past few years, I have had the wonderful opportunity to speak to .NET user groups all over the country as part of the INETA Speakers Bureau (www.ineta.org). My favorite topic is the "Best Kept Secrets in .NET." I enjoy hearing even the most experienced developers say, "I didn't know you could do that with .NET!" Several developers suggested that I turn die presentation into a book. This is that book.

This book is a collection of very valuable but lesser-known features of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework. It provides detailed information about how to use each of these hidden treasures to improve the efficiency of your software development process and the quality of the resulting software. Whether you are an experienced developer or just getting started with .NET, this book will help you to be more productive, create better code, and produce superior software.

Did you know that you could manage code snippets in Visual Studio .NET? Have you ever tried the Incremental Search feature? Have you discovered the Error Provider control? Do you know how to short-circuit operators, alias data types, build regular expressions, or improve your type casting? Have you seen all of the database tools available in the Server Explorer? Did you know that you could manage your database scripts within the Solution Explorer and include your stored procedures under source code control? Have you tried expanding the capabilities of a dataset using Extended Properties? With all of the talk about agile methodologies and Extreme Programming, have you tried to build a test harness with .NET? How about deprecating your methods? This book covers these secrets and much more!

If, while reading this book, you say to yourself, "I didn't know I could do that with .NET," then this book has succeeded. Enjoy!