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I'm working on a project that requires Visual Studio 2005 and I've been trying to find a legitimate download site for Visual Studio 2005 Express, but it seems like Microsoft only wants people to download the 2008 version instead.

Anyone knows why it's like this and if there is some link somewhere where Visual Studio 2005 Express is available?

Dinah
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Spoike
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8 Answers8

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Here are more links: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/Vsexpressvcs/thread/290fb587-1447-466c-9149-a692fa5de34d They seem to point to the same files.

The direct download link: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=51411&clcid=0x409

JaredMcAteer
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thijs
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13

For Visual Studios 2005 C++ express the vcsteup.exe is available here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/3/a/83aad8f9-38ba-4503-b3cd-ba28c360c27b/ENU/vcsetup.exe

I found this link here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/Vsexpressvc/thread/aa4a3808-b0da-4afb-ac19-ac45582bb58a

pcooley
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I belive that VS 2008 (all editions) will only work with .NET 2.0 to 3.5 just as VS 2005 (all editions) will only work with .NET 2.0. This is the reason that VS 2005 is no longer available, because its features are duplicated by VS 2008. The only difference is the solution file, so you could make a seperate solution file for VS 2008.

gkrogers
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stevehipwell
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10

In case anyone else needs the VS 2005 Express Editions for whatever reason (e.g. I needed this particular version a while ago to verify/reproduce a bug), this page: http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/03/28/563660.aspx has links to all versions (Visual Basic, C++, C#, J#) which still seem to be working.

Ákos
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why don't you get VS 2008? and they say that your project is a .NET 2.0 project? or you are editing a .NET 1.x project?

With VS 2008 (express or not) you can target the projects to what framework you want!

balexandre
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  • It would be too much of a hassle to convert the project files back and forth. I only need the 2005 express edition to validate that the solution still works and compiles in the old version (and there are some discrepancies between 2005 and 2008). – Spoike Apr 23 '09 at 08:08
  • @Spoike: Project files share the same format between 2005 and 2008 so you only need to hold separate solution files. I share projects between 2005 and 2008 quite a bit, its no bigee. – AnthonyWJones Apr 23 '09 at 08:23
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    @balexandre: This is incorrect information. It is not possible to target .NET 1.x with VS 2008. The only versions supporting .NET 1.x are VS .NET and VS 2003. With VS 2008 you can target .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0 and .NET 3.5 – Dirk Vollmar Apr 23 '09 at 08:26
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Incase anybody is looking for the Web Developer Express 2005 version CNET has it here:

http://download.cnet.com/Visual-Web-Developer-2005-Express-Edition/3000-10250_4-10421166.html

Believe this only works for windows 2000 and XP.

RMuesi
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0

I found the ISO Visual Studio VB 2005 Express at

http://apdubey.blogspot.com/2009/04/microsoft-visual-studio-2005-express.html

Hernaldo Gonzalez
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0

You can find them at https://my.visualstudio.com/Downloads/

It requires login/subscription to search and download and I'm not sure if everyone can just download them freely, as I'm using a company MS account to log in.

Barnaba
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