.Net Framework Features From .Net 2.0 To .Net 4.5

• Core services, including a new API that lets you extend caching, support for compression for session-state data, and a new application preload manager (autostart feature).
• WebForms, including more integrated support for ASP.NET routing, enhanced support for Web standards, updated browser support, new features for data controls, and new features for view state management.
• WebForms controls, including a new Chart control.
• MVC, including new helper methods for views, support for partitioned MVC applications, and asynchronous controllers.
• Dynamic Data, including support for existing Web applications, support for many-to-many relationships and inheritance, new field templates and attributes, and enhanced data filtering.
• Microsoft Ajax, including additional support for client-based Ajax applications in the Microsoft Ajax Library.
• Visual Web Developer, including improved IntelliSense for JScript, new auto-complete snippets for HTML and ASP.NET markup, and enhanced CSS compatibility.
• Deployment, including new tools for automating typical deployment tasks.
• Multi-targeting, including better filtering for features that are not available in the target version of the .NET Framework

• New controls, including Calendar, Data Grid, and Date Picker.
• VisualStateManager supports changing states of controls.
• Touch and Manipulation enable you to create applications that receive input from multiple touches simultaneously on Windows 7.
• Graphics and animation support layout rounding, Pixel Shader version 3.0, cached composition, and easing functions.
• Text has improved text rendering and supports customizing the caret color and selection color in text boxes.
• Binding is supported on the Command property of an InputBinding, dynamic objects, and the Text property.
• XAML browser applications (XBAPs) support communication with the Web page and support full-trust deployment.
• New types in the System.Windows.Shell namespace enables you to communicate with the Windows 7 taskbar and pass data to the Windows shell.
• The WPF and Silverlight Designer in Visual Studio 2010 has various designer improvements to help create WPF or Silverlight applications.

• Configuration-based activation: Removes the requirement for having an .svc file.
• System.Web.Routing integration: Gives you more control over your service's URL by allowing the use of extensionless URLs.
• Multiple IIS site bindings support: Allows you to have multiple base addresses with the same protocol on the same Web site.
• Routing Service: Allows you to route messages based on content.
• Support for WS-Discovery: Allows you to create and search for discoverable services.
• Standard endpoints: Predefined endpoints that allow you to specify only certain properties.
• Workflow services: Integrates WCF and WF by providing activities to send and receive messages, the ability to correlate messages based on content, and a workflow service host.

• Improved workflow activity model: The Activity class provides the base abstraction of workflow behavior.
• Rich composite activity options: Workflows benefit from new flow-control activities that model traditional flow-control structures, such as Flowchart, TryCatch, and Switch<T>.
• Expanded built-in activity library: New features of the activity library include new flow-control activities, activities for manipulating member data, and activities for controlling transactions.

.Net Framework 4.5 Features

• Support for new HTML5 form types.
• Support for model binders in WebForms. These let you bind data controls directly to data-access methods, and automatically convert user input to and from .NET Framework data types.
• Support for unobtrusive JavaScript in client-side validation scripts.
• Improved handling of client script through bundling and minification for improved page performance.
• Integrated encoding routines from the AntiXSS library (previously an external library) to protect from cross-site scripting attacks.
• Support for WebSockets protocol.

• The new Ribbon control, which enables you to implement a ribbon user interface that hosts a Quick Access Toolbar, Application Menu, and tabs.
• The new INotifyDataErrorInfo interface, which supports synchronous and asynchronous data validation.
• New features for the VirtualizingPanel and Dispatcher classes.
• Improved performance when displaying large sets of grouped data, and by accessing collections on non-UI threads.
• Data binding to static properties, data binding to custom types that implement the ICustomTypeProvider interface, and retrieval of data binding information from a binding expression.
• Repositioning of data as the values change (live shaping).
• Ability to check whether the data context for an item container is disconnected.
• Ability to set the amount of time that should elapse between property changes and data source updates.
• Improved support for implementing weak event patterns. Also, events can now accept markup extensions.

• Simplification of generated configuration files.
• Support for contract-first development.
• Ability to configure ASP.NET compatibility mode more easily.
• Changes in default transport property values to reduce the likelihood that you will have to set them.
• Updates to the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas class to reduce the likelihood that you will have to manually configure quotas for XML dictionary readers.
• Validation of WCF configuration files by Visual Studio as part of the build process, so you can detect configuration errors before you run your application.
• New asynchronous streaming support.
• New HTTPS protocol mapping to make it easier to expose an endpoint over HTTPS with Internet Information Services (IIS).
• Ability to generate metadata in a single WSDL document by appending ?singleWSDL to the service URL.
• Websockets support to enable true bidirectional communication over ports 80 and 443 with performance characteristics similar to the TCP transport.
• Support for configuring services in code.
• XML Editor tooltips.

• State machine workflows, which were first introduced as part of the .NET Framework 4.0.1 (.NET Framework 4 Platform Update 1). This update included several new classes and activities that enabled developers to create state machine workflows. These classes and activities were updated for the .NET Framework 4.5 to include:
• The ability to set breakpoints on states.
• The ability to copy and paste transitions in the workflow designer.
• Designer support for shared trigger transition creation.

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/t357fb32.aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479861.aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171868.aspx