Reusable Application blocks for .NET

I often used to write some utility classes that would simplify the coding of most used tasks.
For e.g. accessing a DataReader for binding to a grid, we have to write all the database plumbing code again and again.
Hence MS has released some utility wrapper classes that can be used to simplify such routine tasks. A good article explaining this is at http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/070203-1.aspx

The application blocks can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads