Retrieving Samples

Every tool in the Visual Studio edition of the MSDN Library includes product-specific samples. For more information on these samples, read the Visual Studio document titled Explore the Samples.

The source files for many samples are accessible from the sample abstracts, which describe what each sample application does. For each sample, you can view the individual source files or copy the source files onto your hard disk to build the application yourself.

To locate sample applications, search for "samples" using the keyword index.

To use a sample application

  1. Click on the link inside the sample abstract to open the sample's view/copy dialog box. This dialog box displays a listing of all the files associated with the sample application.

  2. To look at a specific file, select the file in the file list and double-click it, or click the View button. The file is copied to your system and displayed in a source window.

    Note   Only text files may be viewed. Attempting to view a binary file will disable the View button.

  3. If you want to copy the files onto your hard drive, select the desired files and click the Copy button, or click the Copy All button to copy the entire sample.

    Note   Both the Copy and Copy All buttons let you specify a target directory for the files being copied.