Microsoft has decided to continue licensing CodeRush Xpress for free for developers using the non-free editions of Visual Studio 2010. Developer Express has released the beta version of CodeRush 10.1.

Microsoft hopes the new members of its Visual Studio product family will appeal to what it estimates are 18 million nonprofessional developers worldwide.

The vendor will offer Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop, allowing users of the free version of the development tools to build software with the traditional Windows interface.

Microsoft backs down from its decision to pull desktop UI development from its Visual Studio Express suite, and will be releasing Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop this fall.

The free Express version of Microsoft's Visual Studio 2012 tool suite will allow developers to build more than just Metro-Style, Win RT-based apps for Windows 8.

Deal or No Deal on New VS2010 Pricing Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 and .NET 4 Beta 2 are generally available on Wednesday. MSDN subscribers got access to the downloads on Monday, Oct. 19. With the latest ...