Downloading Express Edition C# 2008

[OmMuruga]

Installing C#
If you have already purchased and installed Visual Studio 2008 and C#, you can skip this section. If you haven ' t installed C#, this section tells you how to download and install the C# Express version of Visual Studio. C# Express is a modified version of C# that is available from Microsoft at no charge. While the Express version of C# is missing some features found in the commercial version of Visual Studio, you  should be able to compile and run all the sample programs in this book using C# Express. Once you are convinced that you should do all your development work in C# (and you will be), you can purchase the  full version of Visual Studio.
Downloading C# Express
                  You go to: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en - us/ express/future/bb421473.aspx to download C# Express. The web page looks similar to what is shown in Figure 1 - 1 . As you can see if you look closely at the figure, the book was written using Visual C# Express Edition Beta 2. (By the time you read this book, it is quite likely that the " Beta 2 " part of the title will have changed.) Now click the IMG file link to download the file.
Depending upon the speed of your Internet connection, the file should be saved on your system within a few minutes.

Installing C# Express
After the download completes, click the executable file that was supplied (the file was named
vcssetup.exe when I installed it, but it could change). You should see a screen similar to that shown in

Selecting the Installation Options
                     
                           Click the Next button to proceed to the next phase of the installation. In short order you will see a screen similar to the one in Figure 1 - 3 , showing Visual C# Expression Edition installation options. This screen presents a number of installation options from which to pick. Unless you have some disk space limitations, I suggest that you install all the components in the list. Note that the file sizes mentioned are compressed file sizes. When those files are expanded, their disk space footprint is substantially larger. (Figure 1 - 3 suggests that a little over 76MB is the download file size. However, just before you press the Install button you can see the actual download file size compared to the expanded file size. When I installed C# Express, I was informed that the download file size was 135MB and the expanded disk storage requirement was 1.2GB.)

                  Microsoft SQL Server and its associated tools are also useful, especially if you plan to do any web development in the future. Unless you have some severe disk space constraints, you should install all the components. You can always uninstall components later if you need to.
Once you ' ve decided on which components you wish to install, click the Next button and go fix yourself a sandwich . . . it ' s going to take a while for things to get installed
 
                     
                    While I was working through the installation process, the install software sensed
that some of the Windows software on my system was outdated. I was asked if
I wanted to install the updates and patches that had come out since I last updated
my system. Because the list also included several patches to Visual Studio, I said yes.
It took almost two hours to download and update my software. However, when the
updates were finished, the C# Express installer picked up right where it had left off
and the installation continued without a hitch. While it does take some time, you
should update your software if the installer offers you that option.



Eventually, the installation process ends . . . honest! If you updated your system software as part of the  installation process, the installer will ask you at some point if you wish to restart your computer. Answer yes if you are asked. After the system restarts and the software has been installed, you should see a new icon on your desktop labeled Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition. You should be able to double - click the new icon and launch C# Express