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Availability of Features in Visual Studio Versions

The following table shows whether certain features are supported in the listed versions of Visual Studio Professional.

  • "Yes" means that the Visual Studio version includes the feature.

  • "Add-in" means that the Visual Studio version does not include the feature, but it is available and you can get more information by clicking the link.

  • "No" means that the Visual Studio version does not include the feature.

Visual Studio 2008

Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Visual Studio 2010

and

Visual Studio 2010 with SP1

Visual Studio 2012

Supported .NET Framework versions

2.0, 3.0, 3.5

2.0, 3.0, 3.5 SP1

2.0, 3.0, 3.5 SP1, 4

2.0, 3.0, 3.5 SP1, 4, 4.5

Local Web Server

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SQL Server Express

2005

2008

2008

2008

Connect to SQL Server versions through Server Explorer

2000, 2005, 2008

2000, 2005, 2008

2000, 2005, 2008

2000, 2005, 2008

ASP.NET AJAX 1

Add-in

Yes

Yes

Yes

ASP.NET Model View Controller

Add-in

Add-in

Yes

Yes

ASP.NET Dynamic Data

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

MSBuild

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

ADO.NET Entity Framework

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

ADO.NET Data Services

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Windows Azure Tools

No

Add-in

Add-in

Add-in

Smart Devices

Yes

Yes

No

No

Parallel Computing

Add-in

Add-in

Yes 2

Yes

Windows Communication Foundation

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Windows Presentation Foundation

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

.NET Rich Internet Application Services

No

Add-in

Add-in

Yes

Silverlight 1

Add-in

Add-in

Yes

Yes

Silverlight 2

No

Add-in

No

Yes

Silverlight 3

No

Add-in

Yes

Yes

Silverlight 4

No

No

Add-in

Yes

Silverlight 5

No

No

Add-in, SP1 only.

Yes

IronPython

Add-in

Add-in

Add-in

Add-in

IronRuby

Add-in

Add-in

Add-in

Add-in

Visual Studio Tools for Office

Yes 4

(Office 2003, Office 2007)

Yes 4

(Office 2003, Office 2007)

Yes 4

(Office 2007, Office 2010)

Yes 4(Office 2010)

Report Projects

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Report Wizard

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Language-Integrated Query (LINQ)

Yes

(Except LINQ to Entities, which is part of the Entity Framework)

Yes

Yes

Yes

SharePoint Development

Add-in, to target Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Yes, for SharePoint 2007 Workflow projects.

For other SharePoint 2007 project types, Add-in

Yes, targeting SharePoint 2010

Yes, targeting SharePoint 2010

.NET Framework 4 Client Profile support

No

No

Yes

No

  1. ASP.NET AJAX:

    Server-side: The controls are included in ASP.NET 3.5, and are already in the Toolbox in Visual Studio. If you are using an earlier version of ASP.NET, for example, ASP.NET 2.0, then you can download the ASP.NET AJAX Extensions.

    Client-side: The client-side ASP.NET AJAX Library is included in ASP.NET 3.5 SP1.

  2. Parallel Computing:

    Parallel Extensions contains the Task Parallel Library (TPL), Parallel LINQ (PLINQ), and the concurrency data structures; these components are included in the .NET Framework 4. The equivalent libraries for native C++ development are the Concurrency Runtime and the Agents library, which are included in Visual Studio 2010. The profiler and debugger enhancements are also included in Visual Studio 2010.

  3. IronPython and IronRuby:

    On the CodePlex Web sites for IronPython and IronRuby, several add-ins are available. Select the version that applies to your environment. The minimal requirement for both languages is the .NET Framework 2.0 SP1.

  4. Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) compatibility and add-in functionality:

    Visual Studio 2008

    Visual Studio 2008 with SP1

    Visual Studio 2010

    Visual Studio 2012

    Document-level

    Word 2003, Word 2007, Excel 2003, Excel 2007, InfoPath 2003, InfoPath 2007

    Word 2003, Word 2007, Excel 2003, Excel 2007, InfoPath 2003, InfoPath 2007

    Word 2007, Word 2010, Excel 2007, Excel 2010

    Word 2010, Excel 2010

    Application-level

    Word 2003, Word 2007, Excel 2003, Excel 2007, InfoPath 2003, InfoPath 2007, Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, PowerPoint 2003, PowerPoint 2007, Visio 2003, Visio 2007, Project 2003, Project 2007

    Word 2003, Word 2007, Excel 2003, Excel 2007, InfoPath 2003, InfoPath 2007, Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, PowerPoint 2003, PowerPoint 2007, Visio 2003, Visio 2007, Project 2003, Project 2007

    Word 2007, Word 2010, Excel 2007, Excel 2010, InfoPath 2007, InfoPath 2010, Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint 2010, Visio 2007, Visio 2010, Project 2007, Project 2010

    Word 2010, Excel 2010, InfoPath 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Visio 2010, Project 2010

See Also

Other Resources

Application Development in Visual Studio