Microsoft Visual Studio Express was a set of

integrated development environment An integrated development environment (IDE) is a Application software, software application that provides comprehensive facilities for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source-code editor, build automation tools, an ...

s (IDEs) that

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

developed and released free of charge. They are function-limited version of the non-free

Visual Studio Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) developed by Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including web site, websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development ...

and require mandatory registration. Express editions started with Visual Studio 2005. In 2013, Microsoft began supplanting Visual Studio Express with the more feature-rich Community edition of Visual Studio, which is available free of charge with a different license that disallow some scenarios in enterprise settings. The last version of the Express edition is the desktop-only 2017.

2005–2010: Language-centric editions

History

Visual Studio 2005 Express, the first version of the Express edition, was released in October 2005. It runs on Windows 2000 SP4 and later. The first service pack for 2005 Express was released in December 2006. This version is freeware and requires no registration. Visual Studio 2008 Express reached general availability in November 2007. Its first service pack was first publicly available in on 11 August 2008. This version requires Windows XP SP3, although it can develop apps compatible with Windows 2000. Microsoft introduced mandatory registration in this version. Visual Studio 2010 Express was released in April 2010, alongside Visual Studio 2010. While most of its components (see below) ran on Windows XP, its

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Mobile for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design languag ...

component needed

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...

Characteristics

The 2005, 2008, and 2010 versions of Visual Studio Express consist of several standalone IDEs, each of which is focused on a single programming language: * Visual Basic Express (the Visual Basic .NET language) * Visual C++ Express (the

Visual C++ Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC) is a compiler for the C, C++, C++/CLI and C++/CX programming languages by Microsoft. MSVC is proprietary software; it was originally a standalone product but later became a part of Visual Studio and made available ...

language) * Visual C# Express (the C# language) * Visual J# Express (the ill-fated J# language, 2005 only) * Visual Web Developer Express ( ASP.NET) * Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone (2010 only)

Visual Basic Express

Visual Basic Express has the following limitations: * No IDE support for databases other than SQL Server Express and

Microsoft Access Microsoft Access is a database management system (DBMS) from Microsoft that combines the relational database, relational Access Database Engine (ACE) with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. It is a member of the Microsof ...

* No support for web applications with ASP.NET (although, it is supported by Visual Web Developer Express) * No support for developing for mobile devices (no templates or emulators) * Absence of

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* Fewer project templates (e.g. Windows services template and Excel Workbook template are unavailable) * Limited options for

debugging In engineering, debugging is the process of finding the Root cause analysis, root cause, workarounds, and possible fixes for bug (engineering), bugs. For software, debugging tactics can involve interactive debugging, control flow analysis, Logf ...

and

breakpoint In software development, a breakpoint is an intentional stopping or pausing place in a computer program, program, put in place for debugging purposes. It is also sometimes simply referred to as a pause. More generally, a breakpoint is a means o ...

s * No support for creating

Windows Service In Windows NT operating systems, a Windows service is a computer program that operates in the background. It is similar in concept to a Unix daemon. A Windows service must conform to the interface rules and protocols of the Service Control Manag ...

s (needs a separate project template) * No support for

OpenMP OpenMP is an application programming interface (API) that supports multi-platform shared-memory multiprocessing programming in C, C++, and Fortran, on many platforms, instruction-set architectures and operating systems, including Solaris, ...

* Limited deployment options for finished programs * No

code folding Code or text folding, or less commonly holophrasting, is a feature of some graphical user interfaces that allows the user to selectively hide ("fold") or display ("unfold") parts of a document. This allows the user to manage large amounts of text ...

Visual Basic 2008 Express includes the following improvements over 2005: * Includes the visual Windows Presentation Foundation designer codenamed "Cider" * Debugs at runtime * Better IntelliSense support **Fixes common spelling errors **Corrects most forms of invalid

syntax In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...

**Provides suggestions to

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

names when specified classes are not found Visual Basic 2005 and Visual Basic 2008 Express feature a Visual Basic 6.0 converter that makes it possible to upgrade Visual Basic 6.0 projects to Visual Basic.NET. The converter is not included with the Visual Basic 2010 Express.

Visual Web Developer Express

Visual Web Developer Express is a freeware

web development Web development is the work involved in developing a website for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). Web development can range from developing a simple single static page of plain text to complex web applications, ...

tool that allows developers to evaluate the web development and editing capabilities of the other Visual Studio editions at no charge. Its main function is to create ASP.NET websites. It has a

WYSIWYG In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for what you see is what you get, refers to software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web ...

interface, drag-and-drop user interface designer, enhanced

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

and code editors, a limited database explorer, support for CSS,

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have ...

and

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

, and integrated, design-time validation for standards including

XHTML Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) is part of the family of XML markup languages which mirrors or extends versions of the widely used HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the language in which Web pages are formulated. While HTML, pr ...

1.0/1.1 and CSS 2.1. Visual Web Developer 2005 Express lacks certain features, such as the Accessibility Checker, the ability to create standalone class library projects, third-party add-ins and macros. Visual Web Developer 2008 Express SP1 supports both class library and web application projects. It also includes a new integrated HTML designer based on Microsoft Expression Web. However, this edition cannot publish self-developed websites.

Visual C++ Express

Visual C++ Express compiles

.NET The .NET platform (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a free and open-source, managed code, managed computer software framework for Microsoft Windows, Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems. The project is mainly developed by Microsoft emplo ...

and Win32 applications in

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in a maximum of 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform la ...

only. It includes Windows SDK's compilers and core files, which developers can use to build Win32 applications. Limitations of Visual C++ Express: * No support for MFC or ATL. These libraries can, however, be installed from an older version of the Windows SDK and Windows Driver Kit, or a Visual Studio Trial installation. * Lack of a

resource ''Resource'' refers to all the materials available in our environment which are Technology, technologically accessible, Economics, economically feasible and Culture, culturally Sustainability, sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and want ...

editor, which is available in commercial editions of Visual Studio. * No profiling support. * No support for add-ins or IDE macros. * No option for crash dump generation. * No "list of all breakpoints" window. * No support for cross-language debugging, for example, a C# application calling a C++ DLL. Limitations in earlier versions: * No out-of-box support for developing

64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit central processing units (CPU) and arithmetic logic units (ALU) are those that are based on processor registers, a ...

applications (prior to 2012). * No support for

(prior to 2012). * The debugger cannot be attached to a running process (prior to 2010). While Microsoft lists memory windows as unavailable in Visual Studio 2010 Express, third parties have reported that they are available when Expert Settings are enabled. Many open-source projects have started providing project files created with Visual C++ Express; noteworthy examples include the

Ogre An ogre (feminine: ogress) is a legendary monster depicted as a large, hideous, man-like being that eats ordinary human beings, especially infants and children. Ogres frequently feature in mythology, folklore, and fiction throughout the world ...

and Irrlicht engines. Modding kits for commercial engines, such as Valve's Source engine, also support this development system.

Visual C# Express

Visual C# Express is a free, lightweight, integrated development environment (IDE) designed for novice developers, students and hobbyists to create applications and (when combined with the XNA Game Studio) video games for Windows,

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

and Zune. It can build

console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...

, Windows Forms and Windows Presentation Foundation applications, and class libraries. Microsoft has found that a substantial community of game players are taking up C# programming. Visual C# Express does not have a breakpoint control panel; breakpoints can only be toggled. The following refactoring modes were also unavailable: * Encapsulate field * Promote local to parameter * Reorder parameters * Remove parameters * Extract interface The limitations effectively reduce the refactoring capabilities of Visual C# Express to renaming and extracting methods. According to Microsoft, the reason the listed features are absent is "to simplify the C# Express user experience". Some users remarked that the omission of refactoring capabilities removed useful functionality without actually simplifying use. The ability to attach the debugger to an already-running process is also unavailable, hindering scenarios such as writing Windows services and re-attaching a debugger under ASP.NET when errors under the original debugging session cause breakpoints to be ignored.

2012–2017: Ecosystem-centric

For the 2012 release of Visual Express, Microsoft changed its distribution of editions so that each version is geared toward an overall solution type, and can contain more than one project type. (This is unlike previous Express editions, each of which was geared around a single programming language.) For example, a web solution might consist of a web application project and a couple of C# class-library projects. This change was made to reflect the wide diversity of applications available for the web and the new WinRT platform used on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Microsoft has released five Visual Studio Express 2012 products: In October 2013, Microsoft released four new versions of its Visual Studio Express products. Like the 2012 Express edition, they are geared toward an overall solution type that may mix different types of projects. However, different IDEs are still offered for different destination platforms. They are: * Visual Studio Express 2013 for Web * Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows: ''Note: Works on Windows 8.1 only (

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel, based on the 8086 microprocessor and its 8-bit-external-bus variant, the 8088. Th ...

and x64).'' * Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Desktop * Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Express 2013 Note that Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone was not released in the set of 2013 products, but Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone is now merged with Visual Studio Express for Windows 2013.2. With this new release, Windows 8.1

is now supported for Windows Phone 8.1 development, but not for

Windows Phone 8 Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft, released on October 29, 2012. It runs on the Windows NT kernel and is the successor to Windows Phone 7. It was the first ...

.0 development or the Windows Phone Emulator, the latter of which also requires a processor that supports Client Hyper-V and

Second Level Address Translation Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), also known as nested paging, is a hardware-assisted virtualization technology which makes it possible to avoid the overhead associated with software-managed shadow page tables. AMD has supported SLAT throug ...

(SLAT). The Visual Studio Express 2015 editions are: * Express for Desktop – for creating desktop Windows programs * Express for Web - for creating responsive websites, web APIs, or "real-time online experiences" * Express for Windows – core tools for creating Universal Windows Platform apps. Requires

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

. * Team Foundation Server 2015 Express – platform for source code control, for project management, and for team collaboration Microsoft terminated the Visual Studio Express lineage with the release of Visual Studio Express 2017 for Windows Desktop. This last release has no siblings specialized in Web or UWP projects. Developers interested a free solution for those projects were instead directed towards Visual Studio Community Edition or

Visual Studio Code Visual Studio Code, commonly referred to as VS Code, is an integrated development environment developed by Microsoft for Windows, Linux, macOS and web browsers. Features include support for debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code comp ...

References

External links

*
Semi-official listing for Visual Studio Express 2013 downloads
{{JavaScript 2005 software

Express Express, The Expresss or EXPRESS may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''Express: Aisle to Glory'', a 1998 comedy short film featuring Kal Penn * ''The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film starring Dennis Quaid * The Expre ...