Visual Studio 2010 Professional Edition is an integrated development environment (IDE) for individual developers and small teams who build applications that operate on Microsoft Windows, in Microsoft Office, or on Microsoft's web and mobile-device platforms.

Developers who use Visual Studio 2010 can choose to program in long-supported Microsoft programming languages such as Visual Basic.NET, Visual C++.NET, Visual C#.NET, Jscript, and dozens more or in several languages that are newly supported with Visual Studio 2010 such as Visual F#, IronRuby, and IronPython. Visual Studio 2010 also includes more integration with SharePoint Server than previous versions, helping developers who need to customize a SharePoint Server 2010 installation.

Visual Studio 2010 includes many Microsoft software development kits, utilities, class libraries, APIs, and data connections. It supports .NET Framework versions 2 through 4, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation, Silverlight, ASP.NET, Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML), and Language-Integrated Query (LINQ). Visual Studio 2010 also includes Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office 4, which targets Office 2007 and 2010.

Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Professional: This version of Visual Studio includes a two-year subscription to MSDN Professional. MSDN provides access to Microsoft operating systems, development kits, and the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Library. Access is via the MSDN Subscriber Downloads site and through regular CD or DVD shipments. Technical support includes unlimited use of MSDN Managed Newsgroups with guaranteed response times of two business days; unlimited access to MSDN Online Concierge for nontechnical questions regarding use of the MSDN site; and two phone-based support incidents.

Express Editions: For organisations that do not need the full functionality of Visual Studio, Microsoft offers free, downloadable Express Editions of Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++, and Visual Web Developer.

Acquiring MSDN: To activate the MSDN subscription, you must perform an additional step while retrieving your license keys from the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center website. To activate an MSDN subscription, click Subscriptions in the VLSC menu bar and follow the MSDN link to enter information about the subscribing user. When the process is complete, the user will receive an email with a subscriber ID and directions to the MSDN website.

Acquiring the Installation Media and License Key: Installing this product requires installation media and a license key. Installation media will be shipped to you free of charge.

Installing this product requires a licence key and installation media. Within 14 days of placing your order, instructions for obtaining the licence key will be sent to your organisation's registered e-mail address and free installation media will be delivered to your organisation's registered address.

Features:

Under the Software Assurance program, customers acquire the right to install any new release of products covered in the agreement during the term of their coverage.
Includes integrated Visual Database Tools for designing databases, tables, stored procedures, and data-driven, dynamic applications
With ASP.NET 3.5, supports AJAX-style interactive Web applications and services such as forms authentication and caching for all content types, not just ASP.NET Web pages
Includes Visual Studio Tools for Office, which allows development of Office-based applications and add-ons to the Office interface to give users access to data in back-end systems
Includes integrated support for unit testing, which was previously available only in Visual Studio Team System products

Requirements:

Hardware:

•   1.6-GHz (or higher) processor
•   1 GB or more RAM; 2 GB or more for 64-bit systems; additional 512 MB if running in a virtual machine
•   3 GB available hard-disk space
•   5,400-rpm hard drive
•   1024x768-pixel or higher-resolution display with DirectX 9–capable video card
•   DVD drive

One of the following operating systems (32-bit or 64-bit except where noted):
•   Windows XP with SP3 (32-bit only), all editions except Starter
•   Windows Vista with SP2, all editions except Starter
•   Windows 7
•   Windows Server 2003 with SP2
•   Windows Server 2003 R2
•   Windows Server 2008 with SP2
•   Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit only)