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Microsoft Visual Studio Express is a set of integrated development environments (IDEs) that Microsoft developed and released free of charge. They are function-limited version of the non-free Visual Studio and require mandatory registration. Express editions started with Visual Studio 2005.
The Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Desktop Language Pack is a free add-on that you can use to switch the language that's displayed in the Visual Studio user interface.
Visual Studio Express products are available at no charge and may be used for commercial, production usage subject to the license terms provided with each product. For example, you can use Express for Windows to create apps that you can then submit for sale in the Windows Store.
Today Visual Studio has made Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop available and you can go download it now free. The best part is that this one SKU supports C++, C#, and Visual Basic together.
A comparison between the different Visual Studio Express editions can be found at Visual Studio Express (archive.org link). The difference between Windows and Windows Desktop is that with the Windows edition you can build Windows Store Apps (using .NET, WPF/XAML) while the Windows Desktop edition allows you to write classic Windows Desktop applications. It is possible to install both products on the same machine.
Visual Studio Express 2010 allows you to build Windows Desktop applications. Writing Windows Store applications is not possible with this product.
For learning I would suggest Notepad and the command line. While an IDE provides significant productivity enhancements to professionals, it can be intimidating to a beginner. If you want to use an IDE nevertheless I would recommend Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Desktop.
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