Microsoft Express Edition software FREE permamently

[K.I.L.E.R]

https://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=126606&SiteID=1

Visual Studio Express is free for one year
Until November 7, 2006, we are promotionally discounting the downloadable versions of Express to free. This doesn’t mean that the product turns off after a year, but rather that as long as you download the product before November 7, 2006, you can get it for free and you can use it forever.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/download/

I just found this out now. Nice!

 

[wireframe]

Very nice.

Am I right in concluding that there is no way of downloading the whole Studio suite as one package and that each component must be downloaded and installed separately?

EDIT: I should have downloaded and clicked the installer before rushing to questions. Looks like you get a download manager and there you can select some components. Let's see how this goes.

EDIT 2: Try downloading the SQL Server module and watch the download dialogue pop up with a title using Chinese characters. How very reassuring. It was at this point I looked at the IP once again to make sure I was downloading something from Microsoft and not some cleverly disguised page posing as such.

 

[wireframe]

New post because I play the "Third edit and you're outta there!!!" game.

Here is this link to the offline installers so you can download it all now and forget about it (apart from registration): http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/support/install/

 

[Scott_Arm]

That's actually really cool.

 

[_xxx_]

I downloaded the C++ and C# CD-images a few weeks ago, but you'll also need the win32 SDK for it to compile for win32 without .net.

That said, everything installed flawlessly and works fine. But this is not news, it's been out for months now.