20

What are the limitations of VS2010 C# Express Edition compared with the paid for versions? I was mostly looking into what sort of applications I can build, in VS Express I only have the option of Console, Winform and DLL, etc. I read that you can build services and add - ins for office programs, is this functionality available in Professional/Ultimate etc versions? Thanks.

Loom
  • 9,768
  • 22
  • 60
  • 112
Bali C
  • 30,582
  • 35
  • 123
  • 152

2 Answers2

19

There's a comparison chart here - You'll need VS Professional to develop Office Plugins.

Although previous version, there is a definitive overview of the VS2008 Express limitations in in this SO Question

Wikipedia also explains the differences.

Edit

The comparison chart link is dead. For 2012:

Community
  • 1
  • 1
StuartLC
  • 104,537
  • 17
  • 209
  • 285
  • 1
    IMHO, the most common annoyances are 1) having to switch between C# and Web editions when building a largish app 2) Lack of add-ins e.g. for version control, but otherwise the VS Expresses are great. – StuartLC Sep 15 '11 at 14:48
  • Yeah I definitely agree with you! – Bali C Sep 15 '11 at 14:59
  • 1
    Unfortunately, as of Mar 2013, this link doesn't compare Express to the other versions. – chessofnerd Mar 03 '13 at 00:52
  • @chessofnerd Thanks, you are right. Unfortunately I couldn't find an old cached version on [webarchive.org] either. I've updated as best as I could for 2012. – StuartLC Mar 03 '13 at 05:52
6

The Express edition does not come with, nor does it grant you permission to distribute, the Microsoft C++ runtime redistributable packages. So the users of the software you build with the Express edition will have to download & run the installers themselves.

Sam Morris
  • 1,858
  • 1
  • 17
  • 18