What is the most common feature that demands the use of Visual Studio Professional over Standard?

Question

I'm afraid my trial of VS 2008 is running out soon, and unless a client pays for it, I might be shelling out some cash for it. I've been looking through the comparison chart to compare VS Professional to Standard, and so far I think I'm safe. I wanted to hear from you on what the most important features are that I would be missing.

Of course, you don't know all the details of my situation - but please just answer based on what you perceive as most important.

Answer 1

Developing Windows Mobile Applications and availability of Database Projects are the showstoppers for me (this applies to Visual Studio 2008).

That's it really. This was a dealbreaker for me though since I wanted to join this mobile application programming contest and was floored when I found out I couldn't do it with Standard.

Otherwise you're fine with Standard edition.

Answer 2

Very little difference between the two. The only one I can think of is remote debugging is not available in standard.

Answer 3

Remote Debugging, Server Explorer, Compact Development (With Device Emulator). It really does depend on your situation but I don't think you'll be without a paddle in general.

Answer 4

You may want to look into the VS 2008 Express editions. Install them and see if you can do everything you need to using the Express editions. Most things that you need/use are in the Express editions, and they're Free. Also, you can use them for commercial use all you want.

Answer 5

The major downside of the Express Edition is they don't support addons - so you have to make sure your Source Control software has a standalone client.

Answer 6

For me OMP support in "standard" is what's nice to have, if your into that

Answer 7

"Attach to remote process" is a must. It lets you debug your application in several virtual (or physical) machines running different versions of Windows without installing Visual Studio on each such machine: you would run Visual Studio on your main development computer and attach it to the instance of your application running on another machine, and debug it that way. That's the only way I debug my applications, I never debug them on the development computer. HTH.