Here are a couple of notes for the VB.NET class I instructed at this week...

(1) Creating a global exception handler for WindowsForms (.NET 1.1):  This is a multistep process (note that in .NET 2.0 they give you a global exception handler in Project properties which is nicer). Create a Sub Main module that creates your main form and adds a handler for the Application.ThreadException. In Project Properties, change your startup object to Sub Main. (code below)

Module SubMain

    Public Sub main()

        Try
            AddHandler Application.ThreadException, AddressOf HandleExceptionEvent

            Dim frmMain As New Form1
            Application.Run(frmMain)

        Catch ex As Exception
            HandleException(ex)

        End Try

    End Sub

    Private Sub HandleExceptionEvent(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Threading.ThreadExceptionEventArgs)

        HandleException(e.Exception)

    End Sub

    Private Sub HandleException(ByVal ex As Exception)

        MsgBox("Sorry, an error has occurred:" & ex.Message)

    End Sub

End Module

(2) Creating a TextBox class that handles Enter as Tab key:  some users prefer hitting ENTER on each WindowsForms field to "tab" to the next field. We can do this by creating an inhertied textbox and handling its KeyPress event. First create a new Class and then implement as follows

Public Class TextBoxEnterTab
    Inherits TextBox

    Private Sub TextBoxEnterTab_KeyPress(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyPressEventArgs) Handles MyBase.KeyPress

        If e.KeyChar = Chr(13) Then

            SendKeys.Send("{TAB}")
            e.Handled = True

        End If

    End Sub

End Class

(3) Code Generation Tools: Check out MyGeneration dOOdads and CodeSmith

(4) Miscellaneous tools and utilities for development
VBCommenter - generates comment blocks for VB.NET  http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/ide/

NDoc - generates documentation automatically form XML comments  http://ndoc.sourceforge.net

NET Reflector - used to disassemble assemblies  http://www.aisto.com/roeder/dotnet/

REGEXLIB - an online Regular Expression library to use with the Regular Expression Validator controls http://www.regexlib.com

Enterprise Library - Microsoft's Application Blocks for handling common development tasks http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5A14E870-406B-4F2A-B723-97BA84AE80B5&displaylang=en
   http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/library/en-us/dnpag2/html/EntLib2.asp

Atlas   http://atlas.asp.net - Microsoft's AJAX library, including Behaviors