We are incredibly excited to announce that effective April 19th, 2006, all Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions including Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual J#, Visual C++, and Visual Web Developer Express will be free permanently!
[source Dan Fernandez's Blog -- check out some of the starter kits there as well]
If you’re at all interested in Microsoft development tools, you’ll find this good news. Originally, the “Express” line of tools were to be freely available until November of ‘06 and after that folks who wanted them would have to pay. And no, I’m not a microsoft shill — I just find these Express Editions very approachable and quite nicely featured.
If you’re new to the tools but want to try them out, also be sure to check out the Coding4Fun site for some interesting tutorials and examples.
Previously mentioned here.
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April 19th, 2006 
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I have Visual Studio 2003 with all the aps. I use Visual Basic. Can I download Visual Studio Express 2005 without any problem.
Thanks
John, there’s not a “everything” package for free, but you could certainly gave the Express editions that you want from the link above.
[...] has been a long time since I last mentioned the Visual Studio Express stuff. At some point since then I see that new versions were released. [...]