Hey, do you know about our Ultimate offer for devs?
Buy or renew your MSDN Premium subscription now to receive a more advanced edition of Visual Studio 2010 with MSDN when it ships.
Limited time offer - Act now.
If your team develops projects that target the Web, Windows, Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Windows Mobile devices, Visual Studio 2008 Professional was engineered for your business.
Professional Edition highlights
- Build applications for Windows Client, Web, Microsoft Office system, .NET Framework, SQL Server, and Windows Mobile with integrated drag-and-drop designers.
- Ensure application correctness easily with integrated unit testing.
- Design complex Office Ribbons with the Ribbon Designer and the provided Ribbon controls.
- Build applications to target SQL Server by using Microsoft Visual Basic® or Microsoft Visual C#® code directly within the database.
- Developers can leverage rich design-time support for Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 in device projects.
- Add an MSDN Premium Subscription or MSDN Professional Subscription to Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition for access to a wide variety of resources and technical support options.
And of course, Professional has all the features of Visual Studio Standard including:
- Build applications using the latest Web technologies with improved support for AJAX and Web controls with the Microsoft AJAX Library.
- Build Web applications easily with support for cascading style sheets (CSS), JavaScript, IntelliSense®, and a split code/design view.
- Build data-driven applications smoothly with LINQ, a set of language extensions to Visual Basic and Visual C#.
- Manage and build applications that target multiple versions of the .NET Framework with a single tool.
- Build stunning user experiences with integrated designers for Windows Presentation Foundation.
- Create connected applications using new visual designers for Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation.
- Simplify the design, development and debugging process with handy editor features, such as Edit and Continue and IntelliSense.
- Deploy client applications easily with ClickOnce, which deploys an application and its prerequisites, and ensures that your client applications remain up-to-date.
Professional Edition system requirements
To install Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, you need:
Software requirements:
32 bit OS: Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2 installed, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista
64 bit OS: Microsoft Windows Server® 2003 with SP1, Standard x64 Edition (WOW)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Enterprise x64 Edition (WOW)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Datacenter x64 Edition (WOW)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2, Standard x64 Edition (WOW)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2, Enterprise x64 Edition (WOW)
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2, Datacenter x64 Edition (WOW)
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (WOW)
- Windows Vista
Client software prerequisites: Internet Explorer® 6.0 with Service Pack 1,
Microsoft Office 2003 with Service Pack 1 or
Microsoft Office 2007, MDAC 9.0, .NET Framework 2.0
Hardware requirements:
Minimum: 2.0 GHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, 8 GB HDD
Recommended: 2.6 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB HDD
MSDN Premium is the perfect addition to Visual Studio 2008 Professional.
Adding an MSDN Premium subscription to Professional Edition will literally change the way you work. Think of it as a lifeline for software developers, testers, architects, IT professionals and database engineers. MSDN Premium is standard-issue with all editions of Team System – and Team Suite , of course – but is optional for Professional Edition users.
Priority access to developer tools
The biggest perk is getting access to Microsoft developer tools and products, including:
- The next release of Visual Studio 2010 when it ships, at no additional cost
- Previous versions of Visual Studio
- Expression Web and Expression Blend
- Software and driver development kits (SDKs/DDKs)
- Productivity applications
- Operating systems
- Early Beta previews
- Server software and more
With your MSDN Premium subscription, you can use the software to design, develop, test and demo your applications on as many machines and devices as you need, as long as each person on your team is a subscriber.
Your subscription pays for itself with this feature alone, by saving you a bundle on software during development.
Deep technical support and collaboration opportunities
No matter how long you've been in the business, you're bound to run into a tricky problem that you just can't figure out on your own. With your MSDN Premium account, you can tap into a broad number of support channels and get back to work fast.
Post a question to one of the managed newsgroups, and you'll get a response from a Microsoft engineer – if the community doesn't give you the answer first.
Four professional Technical Support Incidents come with your subscription to MSDN Premium, which can be used for assistance with technical break-fix issues though Microsoft Technical Support. You never know when you'll need to use this, but the help is there when you do.
24/7 Online Concierge, for one-to-one web-based chats for non-technical questions about navigating the MSDN site, finding Knowledge Base (KB) articles, and using Subscriber Downloads.
Extensive research and resource materials
Need a little training on a new language you're learning, or want to tap into some technical reference materials? MSDN is the place to go. You get access to:
- MSDN Library for how-to and reference documentation, sample code, technical articles, and more
- MSDN Magazine for up-to-the-minute, comprehensive coverage of Microsoft technologies for the desktop, the Internet, and mobile devices with solutions to the real-world problems you face every day
- MSDN Flash packed with info about the latest resources, SDKs, downloads, partner offers, security news, and national and local developer events
Not sure if you need MSDN Premium?
We also offer a lightweight subscription option called MSDN Professional. What's the difference? With MSDN Professional:
- You get only two Technical Support Incidents, instead of four
- Your download benefit does NOT include access to: Expression Blend, Expression Web, Servers, Windows Embedded operating systems, Office or Microsoft Dynamics
For most organizations, MSDN Premium is a better value.
