Microsoft offers free software for students, including WinMo Dev Tools

[Guest Paul (MVP)]

In a speech to Stanford University students, Bill Gates himself has announced that Microsoft will be making a bunch of their products available FREE to Students, including the perfect tool for Windows Mobile Development, Visual Studio 2008 Professional.

The initiative, named 'Dreamspark' is open to students in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium, and provides access to Visual Studio 2008 Professional, Windows Server 2003 Standard, SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition, Expression Studio, XNA Game Studio, Visual Studio 2005 Professional and Virtual PC. Phew!

The process itself is pretty straightforward. Visit the Dreamspark site, login with your Windows Live ID, validate your academic status (a piece of cake if you have a UK NUS Extra card, an ISIC card or your institution is in the list provided), then download your app. Free! Cool :D

Head on over to the DreamSpark site to find out more and get started, and let us know how you get on :)

P

[Guest liht]

Hmm it appears to be only available to a few colleges in the USA, and not a single one in my state (Arizona). Oh well.

[Guest Ayle]

Hmm it appears to be only available to a few colleges in the USA, and not a single one in my state (Arizona). Oh well.

Don't you have msdnaa in your college? At the moment we have visual studio 2005 professional, I guess we'll get the 2k8 version soon ^^.