Introduction

 I have structured this review from the developer perspective, that is to say we will tour the core technologies, the new projects, and the overall benefits for the developer because I got the Enterprise Developer Edition. While you read this I am beginning the review of Visual Studio Team System 2005 where I will focus on every role of the software development process. The DVD sizes up at 2.73 GB.

The Installation PRocess

The installation process took about 40 minutes (quite long) with almost all the basic features on a Windows Server 2003 EE with 256 Mb RAM, 40 GB HDD and a Pentium 4 processor. First it installed the prerequisites, then after a reboot it began to install the product itself. After successful installation I continued with the new version of the MSDN Library, which I liked the new scoped installation. On the first launch you are prompted to customize the IDE according to your experience, decision you can change later I case you regret. I really missed the start page that used to bring us the latest MSDN news, downloads and articles that was in previous versions.

The MSDN Library

The library is a comprehensive list of the new and revised developer documentation, technical articles, and periodicals. This version features a brand new look but the search functionality is not implemented yet so you must manage yourself with the index and the TOC.

There is a new program, the MSDN Archive Manager, it lets you archive and delete content sets from your MSDN Library installation. It provides a place to keep legacy content (such as Visual Basic 6.0 documentation) on your computer. The archived content is still viewable and searchable through the MSDN Library Viewer. However, searches against your main MSDN Library content will not pick up results from the archived content; searches against the Archive will not return results from your main MSDN Library collection.