Do you use Public/Protected Properties instead of Public/Protected Fields?

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Public/Protected properties have a number of advantages over public/protected fields:

Data validation Data validation can be performed in the get/set accessors of a public property. This is especially important when working with the Visual Studio .NET Designer.
Increased flexibility Properties conceal the data storage mechanism from the user, resulting in less broken code when the class is upgraded. Properties are a recommended object-oriented practice for this reason.
Compatibility with data binding You can only bind to a public property, not a field.
Minimal performance overhead The performance overhead for public properties is trivial. In some situations, public fields can actually have inferior performance to public properties.

public int Count;

❌ Figure: Figure: Bad code - Variable declared as a Field

public int Count
{
 get
 {
 return _count;
 }
 set
 {
 _count = value;
 }
}

✅ Figure: Figure: Good code - Variable declared as a Property

We agree that the syntax is tedious and think Microsoft should improve this.