Do you avoid casts and use the "as operator" instead?

Use casts only if: a. You know 100% that you get that type back b. You want to perform a user-defined conversion

private void AMControlMouseLeftButtonUp(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
 var auc = (AMUserControl)sender;

 var aucSessionId = auc.myUserControl.Tag;
 // snip snip snip
}

❌ Figure: Bad example

private void AMControlMouseLeftButtonUp(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
 var auc = sender as AMUserControl;

 if (auc != null)
 {
 var aucSessionId = auc.myUserControl.Tag;
 // snip snip snip
 }

}

✅ Figure: Good example

More info here: http://blog.gfader.com/2010/08/avoid-type-casts-use-operator-and-check.html