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DO WANT: Four Free Downloads for .NET Developers

We're going to be featuring free downloads of interest to .NET developers on a fairly regular basis; below is the first installment.

If you've either created a recently released download or ran across one you think should be shared our readers, please e-mail bnagel(at)1105media.com with the information and we'll consider it for the next installment. In the meantime, enjoy!

  • .NET Set-Up Verification Tool (Draft Version): Microsoft's Aaron Steinburg last week posted an update of his .NET Framework verification tool -- designed to "provide a sanity check of the install state of the .NET Framework...on a system" -- on his personal blog. The tool now works for all versions of the .NET Framework. The tool is still in draft version, so do send him any feedback by posting under the linked blog post or e-mailing him above.

  • .NET Mass Downloader 1.2: If you want the whole of the .NET Framework source code that Microsoft recently released, this is your tool. Created by Kerem Kusmezer and John Robbins and available through CodePlex, it lets you batch download the code for debugging plus access via Visual Studio 2005. Note that you do need to have the RTM Version of the .NET Framework 3.5 installed to use it, even if you're using VS 2005. Find out more about the project here.

  • Source Code Outliner PowerToy for Visual Studio 2008: Microsoft's Visual Studio team just posted this extension for Visual Studio 2008 that offers a tree view with filtering of your source code types and members. This is a 2008 update of the same tool for Visual Studio 2005 (also available via the above link).

  • nAnt .86 Beta: This beta of the latest version of nAnt, much like a .NET version of Ant, launched in December and is available through SourceForge. For details on the new features in this version, go here.

That's it for this edition! Please be sure to send your favorite tool finds to bnagel(at)1105media.com.

About the Author

Becky Nagel serves as vice president of AI for 1105 Media specializing in developing media, events and training for companies around AI and generative AI technology. She also regularly writes and reports on AI news, and is the founding editor of PureAI.com. She's the author of "ChatGPT Prompt 101 Guide for Business Users" and other popular AI resources with a real-world business perspective. She regularly speaks, writes and develops content around AI, generative AI and other business tech. She has a background in Web technology and B2B enterprise technology journalism.

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