One way .Net benefits Windows developers is by bringing together previously separate APIs and SDKs under one framework. For example, consider the adaptation of the CryptoAPI to the .Net System.Security.Cryptography namespace. The cryptographic services have left their mysterious corner of the Platform SDK to become, in a sense, "just another .Net namespace." Of course, there is more to it than that, but the point is that the cryptographic services are more approachable because of what they share with the rest of the framework as a whole. Now, you just have to learn what the System.Security.Cryptography namespace does and which classes are appropriate for specific situations.

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