• Integrated Testing – now has integrated testing facilities into Visual Studio 2008 as opposed to having them as an add-on. In the professional version you can create and run two types of tests. First there is unit testing, to check if a specific method of production code works, for regression, or smoke testing. Then there is ordered testing that allows you to run tests in a specific order.

• Window Presentation Foundation (WPF) – is aimed at helping developers create attractive and effective user interfaces. Most software developers are more effective with technology than design. In the past the developer would have to integrate some combination of Windows Forms, GDI+, Direct3D, and other technologies together to create an interface. WPF attempts to handle most of that for you. Not that you won't have to still use other technologies, but rather by providing a broad range of functionality into a single technology, WPF can make creating a modern user interface significantly easier.

• Windows Communications Foundation (WCF) – is the next generation programming platform and runtime system for building, configuring, and deploying network-distributed services. In the past you have had ASP.NET Web Services (ASMX), Web Service Enhancements (WSE), Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ), Enterprise Services/COM+, and .NET Remoting. You also had to make a choice of which one to use. With WCF you no longer are limited to one technology or one programming model.

• Window Presentation Foundation (WPF) – is the programming model, engine, and tools for quickly building workflow enabled applications on Windows. It contains support for both system workflow as well as human workflow within a wide variety of scenarios such as line of business workflow, interface workflow,

• Visual Designers – comes with an XAML based designer, Visual Studio Tools for Office designer which supports the development of InfoPath, Visio, and PowerPoint, as well as Word, Excel and Outlook, WPF Designer to help with WYSIWYG design of UI, a LINQ to SQL Designer, an updated XLM Schema designer (shipping separately)

• Office Based Solutions – are available in VS 2008 Professional edition. You can use these to build Microsoft Office-based solutions that are reliable, scaleable, and easier to maintain. By using WPF, WCF, and LINQ and Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) you can build a wide range of customer solutions. These new technologies make it easy to build solutions that were difficult, or impossible in prior versions.