Microsoft released guidelines for converting ASP.Net 2002/2003 projects to Visual Studio.Net 2005

Microsoft released guidelines for converting ASP.Net2002/2003 projects to Visual Studio.Net 2005 at Step-By-Step Guide to Converting Web Projects fromVisual Studio .NET 2002/2003 to Visual Studio 2005.

The article states:

The primary benefit of converting a Web application project to Visual Studio 2005 is the ability to use many new features in ASP.NET 2.0 (e.g., master pages,etc.) in your existing application. If you are looking to enhance an existing Web application built using Visual Studio .NET 2003, then upgrading to Visual Studio 2005 is most likely the right decision.

As expected, simple projects will be easier to convert:

For relatively simple Web projects where a Webproject is the only project in your Visual Studio .NET 2003 solution, conversion should be a relatively automatic process requiring little time or problem resolution.

However, not all ASP.Net 2002/2003 project conversions will be easy:

If the application you are converting is of reasonable size and has several Web projects and additional projects, such as class libraries, in a single Visual Studio solution, it is possible to encounter issues during migration. Be prepared to spend the better part of a day completing the entire process. The steps and guidance provided in this article can help an informed user to migrate most applications of medium complexity.

Thank you Web Platform and Tools Team for your honest assessment. I must admit that I am very skeptical when someone says, "it’s really pretty straight forward." Yea....right. In any event, I am looking forward to moving some of my small-sized projects to VS 2005.