Essentially VS2010 generates a backing field for you.
so:
Public Property Fred As String
in VS2010
in VS2008 would be:
Private _Fred As String
Public Property Fred() As String
Get
Return _Fred
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
_Fred = value
End Set
End Property
The "Get" part can be thought of a function with the same name and type as the property. The "Set" part is like a subroutine, but instead of calling it, you use the property name like a variable. The "backing field" is just a variable that stores what the property Gets or Sets.
I use a snippet to insert properties as it makes life much easier. Here is the listing for my "Insert Property" snippet.
<codesnippets>
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
<codesnippet format="1.0.0">
<Header>
<Title>PropertyInsert</Title>
<author>author</author>
<shortcut>ips</shortcut>
<description>Create Region</description>
<snippettypes>
<snippettype>Expansion</snippettype>
<snippettype>SurroundsWith</snippettype>
</snippettypes>
</Header>
<snippet>
<declarations>
<literal>
<id>propname</id>
<default>VarName</default>
</literal>
<literal>
<id>Type</id>
<default>Type</default>
</literal>
</declarations>
<code language="VB">
<![CDATA[
Private _$propname$ as $Type$
Public Property $propName$ As $Type$
Get
Return _$propname$
End Get
Set (ByVal value as $Type$)
_$propname$ = value
End Set
End Property '$propname$
]]>
</code>
</snippet></codesnippet></codesnippets>
Just copy this to a text file with ".snippet" extension; i.e Property.snippet.
Then under VS, go to Tools->Code Snippette Manager and click on the "Import" button and select the file you created. To use it. just type "ips" (without the quotes) and hit the "Tab" key. A template will be inserted into your code. The first field is "VarName"; just type in what you what and hit the "Tab" key to move to "Type" and the type in the variable type (i.e. Sting, Boolean, etc.) and hit "Tab" again. It will automatically fill in the rest for you.
"ips" is the shortcut I defined for it. If you want to use some other shortcut, just change
<shortcut>ips</shortcut>
in the file.