Are only companies and no private programmers allowed to use VS Studio 2012 Express Desktop?

Question

Programming is my hobby and I've just downloaded VS Studio 2012 Express Desktop.

Now I am going to register it but they want me to tell them business information

Are only companies and no private programmers allowed to use VS Studio 2012 Express Desktop? And what shall I type in these text fields?

@Walter Did you mean my spelling or shall I type this in the TextField? — Martin Erhardt, Oct 08 '12 at 13:30
Enter it in the textbox. It's a required field, but there's no rule that it has to be a real company. — Walter, Oct 08 '12 at 13:36
What language will you use? Most languages have more than one editor and most editors are free. I know NetBeans supports .NET. Also here are some more suggestions: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/310735/what-is-the-best-alternative-ide-to-visual-studio — GlenPeterson, Oct 08 '12 at 13:44
Microsoft has always had a thing about requiring a company name to register software since as long as I can remember. — Wyatt Barnett, Oct 08 '12 at 15:14

Eduard Florinescu · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-08T14:13:40.003

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You can put your home address, I don't think it is intended only for businesses, I guess is in the same stride with Visual Studio Shell to try and attract also the opensource community.

From the License documentation

A number of free development tools are also available, including Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8, Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web, and Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop. These tools provide a subset of the functionality available in Visual Studio Professional 2012 and are specific to writing applications targeting these platforms. Each of these Visual Studio Express 2012 products is licensed per user and subject to the use terms included with the product. Visual Studio Express can be used to build production applications.

So it is free, but you are right you need to register after all. Try to put None for the organization, and 0 for numbers of employees. Business address, fill your address or whatever address you think is relevant maybe school its your choice an privacy.

edited Oct 08 '12 at 14:13

answered Oct 08 '12 at 13:37

Eduard Florinescu

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https://profile.microsoft.com/RegSysProfileCenter/wizard.aspx?wizid=2525f0ba-d85f-4730-bd75-e1299f83e666&lcid=1033 – Martin Erhardt Oct 08 '12 at 13:38
@Eduard: In my experience, most versions of VS Studio Express will stop working if you do not register. – Brian Oct 08 '12 at 13:46
@Brian I edited my answer, in my experience with Visual Studio Shell I had no problems, but you can try to register if you need to, I guess the ones that stopped working they were trials but can tell for sure. – Eduard Florinescu Oct 08 '12 at 13:50
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@EduardFlorinescu: Perhaps Shell is different from Express. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms246592.aspx : "You must register your Express Edition to receive a key to unlock the product for long-term use. " – Brian Oct 08 '12 at 14:00
@Brian Is different, you are right I will edit my answer. Although in the link you send it said Visual Studio 2008 – Eduard Florinescu Oct 08 '12 at 14:10
@EduardFlorinescu: That specific URL has only been updated for 2005 and 2008, but Microsoft's policy hasn't changed. – Brian Oct 08 '12 at 14:42

Are only companies and no private programmers allowed to use VS Studio 2012 Express Desktop?

1 Answers1