Visual Studio 11 Express–No Mas Desktop

In an article written on PCWorld it appears that in the Express versions of Visual Studio 11 there will be no support for creating desktop applications, everything is geared toward the new Metro interface in Windows 8.

For those of you that know me or have read some of my postings about Windows 8 either here or on Facebook, you know I’m not a huge fan of Windows 8. I appreciate the fact Microsoft is trying to expand and grow out from their desktop centric world but this really adds another slap in the face to existing users. Users that are desktop based and not mobile based.

For those of you whom have not tried Windows 8 yet or are aware of the changes it brings, Windows 8 has changed the interface from the normal that you are used to. It now uses what is called “Metro” which is a block icon style layout. It does look cool I will give Microsoft that and does somewhat eliminate that messy old desktop.

“That is cool! What’s wrong with that?” you may ask. Nothing, if you’re on a mobile device. Anyway, I won’t get into why I don’t like Window 8 for desktops here.

In the new express version of Visual Studio 11 (The free versions of Microsoft’s development platform) they have removed the support for building desktop applications. Instead, developers will be forced to design strictly for the Metro interface. Now if you’re all into designing for the mobile world, this is great news, you now have a dedicated Microsoft IDE in which to do that. But if you’re like me and develop primarily for desktop applications, then you’re out of luck. Luckily Microsoft is still making the previous versions available but they won’t contain all the libraries for Windows 8. Luckily in the VS11 Web builder edition, you can still do good old fashioned HTML and Java script development without having to be forced to the Metro only interface.

This move by Microsoft is another huge gamble on their belief that Windows 8 will be adopted by the public like Ralphie on Christmas morning finding his Red Ryder BB gun. Will I stop developing because of this? Probably not. In fact, I may start developing more for the mobile market than before but I will continue to develop for the desktop world as well. Let’s just hope Microsoft doesn’t shoot their eye out with this move.