User1508394307 posted
Dave,
You can connect to MySQL using the Express editions of Visual Studio. The limitation, however, is that you can't use the tools in the designer as, like you've noticed, only Microsoft's own connectors are available. However, if you do your database connectivity
in code (just add the MySql.Data.MySqlClient namespace then the MySQL ADO.NET datatypes will become available to you) then it'll work fine.
See original answer here.
Hope this helps.
