Visual Studio

Express for Web

Rise to the highest web standards

Web customers are now mobile customers and vice versa. But no matter what platform they’re on, they still want more: more features, more intuitive interaction, and more responsive experiences. With full support for the latest web standards, new debugging tools, and applications that adapt to mobile on the fly, you’ll find that delivering a whole lot more just got a whole lot easier.

Develop to standards

Users browsing a web application employ a variety of browsers. Some browsers support plugins while others don’t, and all browsers have quirks that affect how they display a site. Web standards exist to help ensure that web applications look and work correctly regardless of the browser used. HTML, CSS, and ECMA scripts are the standards for developing cross-platform web sites. Visual Studio 2012 extends and significantly improves this support.

Use the latest HTML5 and CSS3 capabilities

Visual Studio 2012 includes full IntelliSense support for HTML5 making it easier to develop conforming web sites. In addition, the code editor has new productivity features that simplify web development. The CSS editor in Visual Studio 2012 has been updated to support the latest CSS3 standard and incorporates full IntelliSense.

Use JQuery and JavaScript to make your site more responsive

Visual Studio 2012 also provides support for script loaders that can improve page performance and reduce the complexity of developing a site that contains many JavaScript files. Developers simply select which JavaScript files they are using, and Visual Studio provides full IntelliSense support regardless of whether the file is loaded by using a master/layout page or a script loader.

Find problems faster

Visual Studio 2012 includes a new tool, the Page Inspector, to simplify debugging. By using the Page Inspector, developers can make live changes to the DOM and edit CSS rules, and when they achieve the desired result they can easily copy these changes to the source file. The Page Inspector also enables developers to reverse engineer—with just a single click—the rendered HTML, CSS, or JavaScript to the source file.

Develop for a modern platform and devices

Visual Studio 2012 helps make developing for mobile devices easier by supporting tools that optimize a page for a mobile device. For example, Visual Studio now supports jQuery Mobile, which includes controls optimized for mobile devices. By using a combination of these technologies, developers can create sites that look and perform great on mobile devices.

Powerful server side frameworks

.NET developers building a web site can choose between an ASP.NET Web Forms project or Model View Controller (MVC) templates. In MVC applications, developers define classes that describe the data being used by the page. This makes it much quicker and easier to bind data and work with user input.

Develop Web Services

Service developers can create services by using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). Visual Studio 2012 makes it easier than ever to develop WCF services with built in support for Web API.

Reduce costs and streamline your developer operations

Move your development process to the cloud with Team Foundation Service, dramatically reducing your infrastructure maintenance and easily connecting to providers and external teams. With Team Foundation Service, your code is always safely managed and accessible.

Connected Devices, Continuous Services

Cloud enables your app with APIs that streamline connecting to continuous services. Or get Visual Studio 2012 Professional to create your own services that will be consumed by your site.

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems

Supported Architectures

Hardware Requirements