*You need to login to your Windows XP or Vista desktop as a user that had administrative privileges in order to perform these installations.

In order to get started with C#, you will need to download and install Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition.  If you have the 2005 version, the code examples may work fine, but it all depends on what you are trying to do and what kind of project you are running.  I do understand that some folks don’t have a choice in their professional environment because the customer cannot make a move to 2008 right away and that is perfectly normal.  In any case, what you learn on this website will be useful for both versions since they are very similar.  .  Scroll down towards the bottom of the page and click on the Download button next to vwdsetup.exe.  While you are installing Visual Web Developer, it may ask you if you want to install SQL Server 2008; I recommend that you say No and install that separately because it is a longer installation process with configuration that is necessary to smoothly integrate with your ASP.NET and ADO.NET applications.

For writing Class Libraries in C#, we will be using Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition.  The same things regarding 2008 versus 2005 apply here; they are very similar and you may not even notice any difference if you have used 2005.  .  Scroll down towards the bottom of the page and click on the Download button next to vcssetup.exe.

If you are working in a professional environment, you may be using the fully licensed Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2008 or 2005 and that is fine as well.

As you install the products above, they will install the .NET Framework version 3.5 if you don’t already have it on your computer.  You should install the service pack 1 for the .NET Framework after all of your installs above have completed.  .

To work with the database examples on this website, please read the lessons in SQL Server Installation - Config.