I am planning to migrate a project from .NET 1.1 to 3.5.

Which one would be the best approach?

Converting from .NET 1.1 to 2.0 (by using VS 2005) and 2.0 to 3.5 (using VS 2008).

Or

Converting from .NET 1.1 to to 3.5 (using VS 2008).

Since 3.5 is build on top of 2.0.Can i assume if i convert project from 1.1 to 2.0 by using VS 2005 which can be open by VS 2008 (just change the target environment to 3.5)? (right now I dont have VS 2008 installed on my machine, so i cannot be sure).

Please advice

mrkannan3:

Since 3.5 is build on top of 2.0.Can i assume if i convert project from 1.1 to 2.0 by using VS 2005 which can be open by VS 2008 (just change the target environment to 3.5)? (right now I dont have VS 2008 installed on my machine, so i cannot be sure).

Yes, when you open a VS2005 (.NET 2.0) project in VS 2008 it will ask you if you want to change the target framework to 3.5, you can say no and leave it at 2.0.  The project (.csproj & .vbproj) files are not backwards compatible so you will not be able to open the project files using VS 2005 (I think).  I don't have VS 2005 anymore so I would not know.

I would just get VS 2008 and migrate to that version then upgrade the framework when you have the chance.

FYI: VS2010 can target 2.0,3.0,3.5 and 4.0 frameworks.

This is what I have done.

Create a few backups of your project and use those to try the 2 step and 1 step approach.  Both approaches will give you a report at the end stating if there was or wasn't anything that would be converted.  My guess is you will get considerablly more errors/warnings if you take the 1 step approach. 

Just make sure you have several copies of your project before you start.  Either way I would use VS 2008 to perform the converting to either 2.0 or 3.5.

Good luck!