I have no experience with Visual Studio 2012 or later. Once I saw that you
needed to be logged in to a Microsoft account to do certain things, I said,
"Check, please!"
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The only real difference is you can't use the Express Edition for creating
commercial software after 30 days without registering it. But, you can
create and sell commercial software for up to 30 days, or if you register
it, forever thereafter.
Plugins do not work with the express edition either, so tools like Whole
Tomato's Visual Assist X won't work.
From:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/0782e1b0-db87-4de3-b79d-ba56a481e750/visual-studio-2010-express-is-now-available?forum=Vsexpressinstall
According to Adrian Collier:
"Provided that you comply with all the License Terms for a
particular Express release, the 2010 Express SKUS can be
used to create commercial software. Before you register
the express SKU you are effectively running a trial version
of the Express product, which expires after 30 days. There
is no limit on creating commercial software during the trial
period. Once you register the product, the 'Evaluation' text
changes to show it is a licensed copy."