Includes index.

Contents: TABLE OF CONTENTS; INTRODUCTION; 1 AN INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL BASIC 2008 EXPRESS; Project Preview: The Joke Machine; A Few Opening Words; A Quick Overview of Visual Basic; GUI Development; Rapid Application Development; Object-Oriented Programming; Introducing Visual Basic 2008 Express; What Can Visual Basic 2008 Express Do?; What Can't Visual Basic 2008 Express Do?; What's New in Visual Basic 2008 Express; Support for Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5; Multi-Targeting; More IntelliSense; Support for New WPF and WCF; New Language Features; Improved ClickOnce Deployment. Integrated Power Pack ControlsOther Visual Studio 2008 Express Programming Languages; Visual C# 2008 Express; Visual C++ 2008 Express; The Microsoft .NET Framework; Before .NET; .NET Components; .NET 2.0; Back to the Joke Machine; Designing the Game; Summary; 2 NAVIGATING THE VISUAL BASIC 2008 EXPRESS DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT; Project Preview: The Click Race Game; Getting Comfortable Moving Around the Visual Basic 2008 Express IDE; Navigating the IDE Menu; Working with Toolbars; Form Designer Basics; Understanding the Code Editor; What's in the Toolbox?; Working with Solution Explorer. Understanding How to Use the Properties WindowThe Component Tray; Other Windows; IDE Components Specific to WPF Applications; Back to the Click Race Game; Designing the Game; Summary; 3 CREATING AN APPLICATION INTERFACE; Project Preview: The Speed Typing Game; Putting Together a Graphical User Interface; GUI Design for Windows Forms Applications; Specifying a Windows Starting Position; Specifying Windows Border Style; Dynamically Altering Title Bar Messages; Setting Up Control Tab Order and Focus; Adding a Status Bar to Your Application; Posting a Notify Icon in the System Tray. Adding a Splash Screen to Your ApplicationLeveraging the Convenience of Built-in Dialogs; Windows Forms Versus WPF Applications; GUI Design for WPF Applications; Creating Console Applications Using Text-Based Interfaces; ClickOnce Application Deployment; Back to the Speed Typing Game; Designing the Game; Summary; 4 WORKING WITH MENUS AND TOOLBARS; Project Preview: The Lottery Assistant Game; Designing a Menu System; Adding Menus, Menu Items, and Submenus; Associating Code Statements with Menus and Menu Items; Enhancing Windows Menus; Enabling and Disabling Menus and Menu Items. Hiding and Displaying Menus and Menu ItemsContext Menus; Adding Convenience with Toolbars; Adding Graphics to Your Toolbars; Associating Program Statements with Toolbar Buttons; Back to the Lottery Assistant Game; Designing the Game; Summary; 5 STORING AND RETRIEVING DATA IN MEMORY; Project Preview: The Story of Mighty Molly; Enhancing Your Code with Comments; Storing and Retrieving Data; Alternative Ways of Storing Data; Data Types; Working with Constants; Declaring Your Own Constants; Using Visual Basic Built-in Constants; Working with Variables; Defining Variables.

Want to learn to program in Windows but don't know where to start? Look no further! This book is designed to teach you how to develop Windows applications using Microsoft Visual Basic 2008 Express. To help make learning fun and interesting, you will learn how to program through the development of computer games, and you will develop a new game that reinforces a newly learned concept in each chapter. It's the easiest way to learn! By the time you have finished the book, not only will you have access to a collection of working sample scripts, you also will have laid a foundation upon which you can begin to tackle real-world challenges and new languages. Whether you are an experienced programmer looking for a jumpstart on learning Visual Basic 2008 Express, or a first-timer looking for a friendly programming language and a book that will help you to begin your programming career, you will be happy with what this book has in store for you!