Visual Studio App Center, a mobile-centric resource for building, testing, releasing and monitoring apps, now supports WPF and WinForms desktop development.

Microsoft has up the first three of sixteen video tutorials designed to teach novices the basics of application development with the Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions.

Developers can use the Desktop App Converter to convert Win32- and .NET 4.6.1-based apps to run on the Universal Wndows Platform and related extensions and toolings.

No-cost desktop software development is dead on Windows 8 You won't be able to use the free Visual Studio Express to develop desktop apps.

The free Express version of Microsoft's Visual Studio 2012 tool suite will allow developers to build more than just Metro-Style, Win RT-based apps for Windows 8.

After hearing objections from developers, Microsoft will offer a version of its Visual Studio Express 2012 package for desktop application development after all.