http://www.microsoft.com/express/product/

Remember the 2005 Visual Studio Express Editions? The new 2008 versions were released on Monday this week. As you may already know, the Visual Studio Express Editions are lightweight versions of the main Visual Studio IDE. Have a play around with the Express Editions if you want to use VS08 but don't want to wait for the final release or use the beta version (not sure, but I think final release should be by end of the month- Microsoft currently has Beta 2 available for download on their site).

I think it's really worth trying out- especially now that Microsoft have provided more support and add-ons for the Express Editions, which I'm really looking forward to having a play around: Facebook Developer Kit, DarkGDK for making games in C++ (ala DarkMATTER, for people who know it :P), C4F Developer Kit with 20 ready-made controls for you to use in your own programs.

Like other SSE students, even though I can get the full Visual Studio 2005 from MSDNAA I still like using the Express Editions for a lot of things because it loads and runs faster.

I'm going to install the 2008 versions tonight when I get home.