Visual Studio 2010 Express Limitations

Question

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.

Answer 1

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:

• Visual Studio 2012 (Web Only) comparison is here, and in this Programmer's post
• This SO post addresses the Desktop comparison.

Answer 2

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.