CHAPTER 1

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.