As you may have seen, Soma announced today that Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop is now available for download.  For C++ developers, the Express for Windows Desktop includes many of the new C++ investments we made in Visual Studio 2012, including C++ AMP, improvements to C++ 11 Standards conformance, improvements to the compiler and linker, and the IDE.  It also includes the 64-bit cross-compiler and 64-bit C++ libraries, the C++ unit testing introduced in Visual Studio 2012, and a targeted set of code analysis rules to help you build more reliable applications.  And while we’re still working on the update that will enable targeting Windows XP, it will be supported with Express for Windows Desktop when it’s available.  Head on over to this post on the Visual Studio Team blog to join the discussion about what’s new in Express for desktop development.

Jennifer Leaf

Senior Program Manager

Visual C++