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Visual Basic 2005 Power Packs

If you're a VB6 developer, who is just about to migrate to the new, VB 2005 (.NET 2.0) environment, you'll probably going to miss some of the old tools and features you loved to use in good old VB6. To ease up the migration process for you, Microsoft just launched a new site, dedicated to VB 2005 Power Packs, which fill feature downloadable (free) "Add-Ins, Controls, Components, and Tools for you to use with Visual Basic 2005 to make developing great applications even easier".

Currently, there are two packs already available to download: Microsoft Interop Forms Toolkit will allow you to easily extend your VB6 applications with new WinForms controls by generating all necessary COM wrappers around those controls with a simple click of a button, which in the end allows you the slow, step by step migration to the new environment.[Update: see this blog post for a 6-minute screencast on this toolkit.] The second pack, Microsoft PrintForm Component, simply brings back the feature of printing your application's forms (including print previews).

You can check for other packs in the making on the Power Pack Suggestion Center (on Microsoft Connect), where you can also vote for your favorite packs and make suggestions for a new pack you'd want to see and use in the future. There's at least one pack already in the making, which I'm sure you already miss - The Line and Shape Controls.