Visual Studio Express Alternatives

Visual Studio Express

Microsoft Visual Studio Express is a set of integrated development environments developed by Microsoft as a freeware and registerware function-limited version of the non-free Microsoft Visual Studio. Express editions started with Visual Studio 2005.

Visual Studio Express Edition is one of the most popular platforms designed for passionate programmers. It can be used to develop desktop apps, Metro style programs and hardware drivers.

The GUI looks very familiar for users with plenty of experience in the programming department, but rookies are likely to experience headaches when opening this application.

Fortunately, there is a very helpful online community that's ready to come to your aid with tips and tricks, but you still must have some basic skills in a programming language.

Visual Studio Express Edition comes with features like multi-monitor support (so you can drag and drop documents from one monitor to another), zoom (in editors or diagrams), navigation (through files, code, variables and methods; more efficient than the common search function), as well as Intellisense (Visual Studio's intuitive feature that simplifies your coding experience).

Note: Visual Studio Express 2017 is only available for Windows Desktop developers, as UWP or Web editions will not be released, and it is the final version of Visual Studio Express product line (Visual Studio Express 2015 is the last complete edition). If you are looking for an updated alternative that is still in development, you may wish to try Visual Studio Community.