Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" delivers on Microsoft’s vision of smart client applications by enabling developers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality rich user experiences. This new version enables any size organization to rapidly create more secure, manageable, and more reliable applications that take advantage of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System. By building these new types of applications, organizations will find it easier than ever before to capture and analyze information so that they can make effective business decisions.

The highlights of this CTP include:

• ADO.NET 3.0 Advancements
• LINQ over XML (XLinq)
• Multi-targeting
• Improved 64bit application working set
• Lightweight reader/writer lock with deadlock-free upgrade support.
• A high performance trace listener which logs XML to disk in the event schema.
• Getting VSTO and/or controls off machine policy/legacy policy migration
• Security Platform Parity - Suite B support: AES
• A new date time data structure that can specify an exact point in time relative to the UTC time zone.
• New IO types that expose almost all pipe functionality provided by Windows.
• A new high performance set collection.