Zuhaib

Like me if you also forgot to install the MSDN documentation while installing Visual Studio 2010 then don’t worry, it can be installed afterwards.

Step 1: Open Help Library Manager

Launch Visual Studio 2010 then click on Help » Manage Help Settings

It will bring up the Select Location dialog box. You can change the documentation path here, if you want to. But the default path should be ok. Click on Ok button to continue to next dialog.

Step 2: Install From Disk

In this dialog box click on Install content from disk link. Then locate the locate the HelpContentSetup.msha manifest file under the CDROM » ProductDocumentation folder and click Open.

Step 3: Select Contents To Install

In this dialog box choose what help contents you want to install by clicking on the Add link in the Action column. Click on the Update button to start installing.

When the installation is finished click on Finish button to close the dialog box.

Step 4: Choosing Preferred Help Location

At this point the MSDN documentation are installed on your system, but the Visual Studio is using the online help as the main source. To use the local help contents, follow Step 1 to open the Help Library Manager. Click on Settings, then click on the I want to use local help option button and click Ok.

Hope it helps.

As you guys might already know, that Visual Studio 2010 & .NET Framework 4.0 has been released. All of the latest development tools from Microsoft are full of awesomeness. If you haven’t already got your hands on the latest version of Visual Studio, then below are few links that can get you started:

• Download Visual Studio 2010.
• Read blogs.
  • ScottGu
  • Scott Hanselman
  • Haacked (For MVC goodness)
• Watch shows.
  • Channel9 10-4
  • MIX10 Videos
• And of course Google.

My Visual Studio Color Scheme

I have always preferred working in dark color schemes, but because the color of visual studio 2005 & 2008 was light, it was difficult to get a complete dark working environment.

But as the new Visual Studio IDE is built using WPF, we can customize the theme of the IDE using the Visual Studio Color Theme Editor. This is one of my favorite extensions for Visual Studio 2010. The extension comes with few built-in color schemes, that are actually quite good. But, I wanted my IDE to be more like Expression Blend. So, I have created my own theme for Visual Studio 2010, which is not yet complete. But, if you like it then give it a try.

Dark:

Some parts of the Visual Studio IDE like the Solution Explorer, Property Window, Scroll Bars etc are rendered natively (your current windows theme). So, there is no way (that I know) to customize the color of those particular parts of the IDE.

Download

To import the Expression theme, install the Visual Studio Color Theme Editor extension and then import the file from the Customize Colors dialog.

Gray:

The author of the extension has given detailed explanation about how to create the lighter version of the Expression Blend theme on his blog. Check out his post here or click here to download the gray theme.

PS: If you enhance this theme, then please share.

Update (05/03/2010):

• Fixed tool window button colors.
• Fixed dropdown & combobox colors.

Update (05/20/2010):

• Fixed panel tab hover colors.
• Fixed command bar colors.