Get.Started.With.Express

If you are a hobbyist developer, enthusiast or a student who develops web applications for fun or for personal pleasure but don't have the deep-pockets to invest in the full suite of Visual Studio 2005 Professional, you may want to check out Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition.

Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition is a FREE and light-weight Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that is targeted to students and hobbyist developers who need an easy-to-use development tool to build their web applications in ASP.NET 2.0. What's cool is that it comes with all the basic features for building web applications including Intellisense and you don't need a web-server i.e. IIS to develop and test your web applications. You can read more about it here or download it here.

Here are some useful resources to get started:

- Visual Web Developer Express Guided Tour
- Visual Web Developer for Beginners Video Series
- ASP.NET 2.0 Quickstart

There are also some goodies if you register your copy of Visual Web Developer or any Express Edition products. Check it out here.

If you are developing windows application, check out these Express products:

- Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
- Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
- Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
- Visual J# 2005 Express Edition

Need a FREE database for your application? Check this out:

- SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (now comes with)

It is absolutely FREE. Yes! Free to use and Royalty-free distribution. Plus! It comes with a management tool - SQL Server Management Studio Express and supports SQL Server Reporting Services too.

So if you want to get started with developing .NET 2.0 applications, go and download all those cool stuffs today!

Updated: Blast!!! The Express Editions are only free for ONE year but that doesn't cover SQL Server Express which will remain free at all times. Anyway, go get it before the offer is over!