Introduction

The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) is the portion of Microsoft responsible for managing the firm's relationship with developers and testers: hardware developers interested in the operating system (OS), developers standing on the various OS platforms, developers using the API and scripting languages of Microsoft's applications.

MSDN Forums

MSDN Forums are the web-based forums used by the community to discuss a wide variety of software development topics.

MSDN Gallery

The MSDN Gallery is a repository of community-authored code samples and projects. New in 2008, the purpose of the site is still evolving to complement Codeplex, the open-source project hosting site from Microsoft.

MSDN Library

The MSDN Library is the centralized repository of official developer-related documentation. Document sets are published by various user assistance organizations within Microsoft and the community has the opportunity on many of the pages to add their own annotations. Community Content contributions can be edited by anyone. Since May 2006, Microsoft has also started producing a community CD version of the MSDN Library freely available for download as ISO images on its Download Center which contains only updated content.
 
The Community Distribution of the MSDN Library is aimed at developers in countries where broadband internet connections are not readily available.
Visual Studio Express editions integrate only with the MSDN Express Library which is a subset of the full MSDN Library, although either MSDN edition can be freely downloaded and installed standalone.
 
In Visual Studio 2010 MSDN Library is replaced with the new Help System which is installed as a part of the Visual Studio 2010 installation. Help Library Manager application is used to install Help Content books covering selected topics.

MSDN Magazine

Microsoft provides the editorial content for MSDN Magazine, a monthly publication. The magazine was created as a merger between the Microsoft Systems Journal (MSJ) and Microsoft Internet Developer (MIND) magazines in March 2000. MSJ back issues are available online. MSDN Magazine is available as a print magazine in the United States and online in several languages.

Community Resources

MSDN Web Pages

• MSDN Home Page
• MSDN Library

Blogs

• MSDN Blogs

Forums

• MSDN Forums Home

MSDN Magazine

• MSDN Magazine Home Page

Social Media

• MSDN Facebook Page
• MSDN Twitter Page

Credits

The original article was written by Luigi Bruno.

See Also

• Wiki: Development Portal (en-US)

Other Languages

This article is also available the following languages:

Deutsch (de-DE)

• Microsoft MSDN (de-DE)

Italiano (it-IT)

• Microsoft MSDN (it-IT)