C# Express Offline Download seems to be broken, is there another way of getting the ISO file?

Question

Hi I've been attempting to download the offline install program for Visual Studio C# express edition. The page where it supposed to be available is : http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/offline.aspx and step one in the 3 simple steps instruction on that page reads as such

Installing Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions using .ISO files.

• Download the image file (.ISO).
• Use a tool for writing the file to recordable media such as DVD-R
• Now simply insert the DVD created in the step above into your drive and double-click the setup.hta file to begin the installer.

but there is no link to the ISO file on the page ... the only links on the page lead you to various 'Trial Software' ISOs with a 90 day or so expiration not to the C# Express software ISO.

I've used various permutations of keywords agaisnt the search feature at microsoft.com to no avail. finally found a forum listing with this link from a 2007 post:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/6/5/a65071ac-818f-4bc1-ba1c-38116d281d32/vcs.iso

You could not find that file if you didn't know exactly where it was (in my case thanks to an old forum post). I'm hoping a forum admin or another Microsoft person see's this question and puts in a request to fix the VC# Express Edition OFFLINE Download site.

Answer 1

Hi ProDev666,

The ISO is the file VS2008ProEdition90dayTrialENUX1435622.iso. It's the installer of Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition (All-in-One) which contains all the Express products as well as optional components.
It can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/default.aspx (Please check the "Offline install" at the bottom of this page).

Hope this helps. If you have any concern, please feel free to let me know.

Best regards,
Yichun Chen

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Answer 2

Hi Yichun,

Thanks for the information!

So, it looks like the link labeled "Offline Installs" at the top of the page is meant as a link to further information about offline installs and the page you are presented with when you select the menu link labeled "Web Installs" is the one that actually has the offline install .iso file link at the very bottom. Got it.

Thanks again for your help!

Answer 3

Hi ProDev666,

It's my pleasure.

You're right. The page of "Offline Installs" contains the instruction of ISO file.

I'm so glad to hear that your issue is solved. Cheer!

Have a good week. :)

Best regards,
Yichun Chen

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Welcome to the All-In-One Code Framework! If you have any feedback, please tell us.

Answer 4

I appreciate being told that the Professional edition contains the express editions; however, being one of those people who lives so far out in the country that information doesn't help. I don't, and can not get, high speed internet where I live. Doom on me.  The Pro trial edition is larger than 3 GigaBytes. I'm not going to sit for 6 to 10 hours in a coffee shop waiting for this behemoth to download.

It would have been much easier for people (me, at least) to download the editions we require (like C# only or C++ only). Instead, I'm bothered with tracking down posts such as this one where it explicitly states where the files can be found. And, as well intentioned as the original poster is, I'm still left with the task of locating the C++ and SQL Server express editions. So, he at least saved me from some footwork in locating the C# file. Thank you, sir.

Just downloaded the C# one and it took 40 minutes. That's tolerable. What's intollerable is being forced to download >3GB of trialware in one fell swoop.

Otherwise, thanks to Microsoft for allowing us, the community, to freely use their compiler when we can get it.