1.

Master Pages -- The ability to create a page template (a master page) and have other pages inherit the layout and controls contained on the master page. This was a major shortcoming of ASP.NET 1.1 that is now cured. 2. Data Source Controls -- the invisible new controls now make possible no-code advanced data binding. Of special note is the Object Data Source Control which you can use to create N-Tier applications while still taking advantage of the rich data binding capabilities of the new data controls. 3. FormView and DetailsView Controls - this pair of controls solve the single-record form problem that ASP.NET 1 never addressed. When paired with one of the new Data Source controls, these controls support no-code pagination, filtering, updating, editing, and inserting of records. Plus, with the FormView control, you can even take advantage of the validation controls. 4. GridView Control - this amazing control is like a DataGrid on steroids. When paired with one of the new Data Source controls, this beauty of a control supports no-code sorting (ascending and descending), pagination, filtering, updating, and editing of records. 5. SQL Cache Dependencies - Output caching is nice but wouldn't it be better to be able to have a page refresh itself when its underlying data source changed? You can do that with 2.0's SQL Cache Dependencies. 6. Autodetect Session and Form Authentication - With a couple of settings in the Web.config file you can set both Session and Forms Authentication to automatically detect if cookies are turned on and when they are not use cookieless session/forms authentication instead. 7. Login Controls - Forget about all that custom coding that was necessary to login users, create new user accounts, change passwords, and customize the content based on role membership. The Login controls along with the new Membership and Role Management APIs greatly reduce the code you have to write when using Forms Authentication. 8. SiteMap - Wouldn't it be nice to easily create a navigation map and feed it to a tree or menu control without writing any code? It's possible now with the Web.sitemap file and the new navigation controls. 9. Profiles - With the new Personalization features built into ASP.NET 2.0, you can easily store and retrieve personalization data without having to create any tables or stored procedures. 10. Web Parts - Have you wanted to create a site that looks and acts like SharePoint? You can now with ASP.NET 2.0's support for Web Parts. But if you heard that SharePoint Web Parts were difficult to program, rest assured that in ASP.NET 2.0, they are incredibly easy to create and use.