ASP.NET 2.0 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter 2. Installing Visual Studio Web Developer 2005 Express Edition or Visual Studio 2005

In This Chapter

✓	Comparing the editions of Visual Studio
✓	Registering and test-driving Visual Web Developer Express
✓	Installing Visual Studio successfully

Before you can use Visual Studio to develop ASP.NET 2.0 applications, you must install the Visual Studio software. This chapter introduces you to the various versions of Visual Studio available for you to choose from, and then walks you through the process of installing the most popular version for ASP.NET Web development — Visual Studio Web Developer Express Edition. (The setup process for other versions of Visual Studio is similar.)

Looking at Visual Studio 2005 Editions

Like most Microsoft software, Visual Studio 2005 comes in several different versions. Here’s the rundown on each one:

• Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition: This is the basic version of Visual Studio 2005. It includes everything you need to develop Windows applications using Visual Basic, C#, or C++, or ASP.NET 2.0 Web applications using Visual Basic or C#. It also comes with SQL Server Express Edition, a scaled-back version of SQL Server that’s designed to use while you’re developing applications that access a database.

• Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition: This is a beefed-up version of the Standard Edition, with added features that are useful for professional developers — in particular, advanced debugging features and the capability to create complex Setup projects for deploying ...