Introduction to Microsoft Visual Studio Express Editions
What Is That?
Visual Studio Express Editions are a new line of
Microsoft development Tools. This line of products is an expansion of the Microsoft
Visual Studio and SQL Server products.
It is a lightweight, yet powerful, easy
to use and learn tools for beginners, students, and hobbyist users.
Express products are:
-
Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
-
Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
-
Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
-
Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
-
Visual J# 2005 Express Edition
-
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
With Express Editions you will be able to learn how to
program using a lightweight streamlined environment with built-in tutorial
contents, and evaluate the .NET framework for Windows and Web development. So,
you can think of it as a step towards using the full professional editions.
In this tutorial we will try to give you a general idea
about what the Express Editions can do, how they differ from the rest of
Visual Studio and SQL Server Editions, how to obtain them and for what price,
compatibility, installation, and more.
How Much Does It Cost?
Fortunately, You have to pay nothing to obtain these
express editions. All of them are for free for every one.
On Brief
Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition is a
stand-alone web focused tool for building ASP.NET 2.0 applications. It is a
member of Visual Studio 2005 family and is designed exclusively to build web
applications and web services. As Visual Studio 2005, Visual Web Developer does
not support ASP 1.1. It supports development with Visual Basic and C# and
includes a rich HTML and XML editors. It comes also with a built-in web
development server giving you the ability to build and test web applications
without the need to setup an IIS server. This indeed a great time saver as this
setup is traditionally known to be somewhat time consuming and is a source of
some possible hassle.
You can use this product to edit web projects created
with Visual Studio 2003 as a backward compatibility. When you do this, the Visual Web
Developer 2005 Express Edition converts your old application to a new formats
giving to you the ability to continue working with the new features supported in
this edition. Note that the conversion process is one-way, means that you will
no longer be able to to continue to work with this converted application in
Visual Studio 2003. Because of that the conversion process creates a backup of
your project before converting it, an appreciated backup scenario.
If you convinced with this nice tool and want to upgrade
to Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, don not worry much about the application you
built using Express Edition. There is 100% compatibility between both of Express
Editions and the Professional one.
Visual Studio Web Developer Express Edition comes with a
fully functional starter kit applications designed to help you learn ASP.NET
2.0 and cover common web development scenarios. Each sample is complete, functional and well documented so you can start building your first web
application immediately.
To download Visual Studio Web Developer Express Edition,
click here.
You can setup it directly from the web and in the same time you can download it
for a later offline setup process. If you are to select the offline setup
process then you will need to perform a process of burning the downloaded CD
image into an actual CD-ROM disc or at least you can use one of the programs
that can extract ISO CD images (Examples: Win ISO, Virtual CD, ... etc)
Visual Basic, C#, C++, J# 2005 Express Editions
These programming tools is a lightweight reduced version
of professional editions and are designed for beginners and hobbyists.
With Visual Basic and Visual C# 2005 Express Editions you
can develop windows applications, consol applications (which are command line
applications), and reusable components.
With Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition you can develop
native (unmanaged, WIN32 API) applications as well as managed applications. You can also develop consol
applications, and class library applications. With Visual C++ 2005 Express
Edition you can take the full advantages of programming with WIN32 API.
Like Visual Basic and Visual C# 2005 Express
Editions, Visual J# 2005 Express Edition gives you the ability to develop
windows applications, consol applications, and reusable components. Adding to
this the fact that Visual J# 2005 Express Edition introduces you to the world of
JAVA in an easy yet powerful way while gaining full access to the Microsoft .NET
framework class libraries! ... A mix that is not available every where indeed.
To download Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, click
here
To download Visual C# 2005 Express Edition, click
here
To download Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition, click
here
To download Visual J# 2005 Express Edition, click
here
Please get back to the section about
downloading and setting up Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition above for
more details about the download and setup process.
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
SQL Server Express is a lightweight version of Microsoft
SQL Server 2005 with the benefits of fast downloading and installation,
simplified database administration, free management tools, full integration with
Visual Studio Express Editions, ease of deployment, reporting services, plus
free starter kits and rich documentations and tutorials.
Although included with the express suite of tools, the
express edition of Microsoft SQL Server is widely used in many professional
products as an easy to deploy, affordable database engine.
To download SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, click
here.
Please get back to the section about downloading and setting up Visual Web
Developer 2005 Express Edition above for more details about the download and
setup process.
Differences
As we mentioned above, Express Editions are designed for
beginners, students, and hobbyists. They are designed specially for scenarios
common to those targeted people. The user interfaces are streamlined to ensure
that more advanced features do not interfere with the learning process.
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition is designed for simple
applications. It is limited to using 1 CPU, up to 1GB of RAM, and 4 GB maximum
database size. It does not support SQL Server 2005 advanced features like
Reporting Services, Data Transmission Services, Analysis Services, and
Notification Services.
Compatibility
Fortunately, Visual Studio Express Editions can be installed side by
side with other versions of Visual Studio. As an entry point for professionals, applications
developed by Visual Studio Express Editions are showing 100% compatibility and
ease of migration to higher end Visual Studio 2005 editions.
Express Edition as well as higher editions work perfectly
with .NET framework 2.0 but does not support .NET framework 1.1
Installation
When you click on the "Download Now" link, a
bootstrap automated installer begins installing the software on your computer. If you encountered any problems with the automatic
installer, or if you want to download an Express Edition to burn on a CD use
manual installation.
The Manual Installation provides three options.
They are, manually installing your Express Edition on the local machine,
burning the Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition to a CD, or Installing an Express
Edition from CD.
More...
You can use Express Editions for commercial use. There
are no licensing restrictions for using them in this regard.
You can get more starter kits for each Express Edition
form http://msdn.microsoft.com
You can use
Express Editions Forums to get help and support from other people using
these Express Editions, as well as Microsoft products team members.
You can perform that registration of the Express Editions for
some benefits like free books and articles.
For further information
Refer to the online copy of Microsoft Developers Network at
http://msdn.microsoft.com or use your own local copy of MSDN.
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