The program we want to install can be found here. Otherwise, start with Visual C# Express 2010, and then depending on what you want to do, move up into one of the 2012 versions if you want. If you have the money, and you're making games, consider Visual Studio 2010 (but check into upgrading costs for later, first). TL DR: If you have the money, and you're not making games, go with Visual Studio 2012. If phone development is what you want, they're still saying to use the Visual Studio Express 2010 for Windows Phone until then. They've sync'd the release of Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Phone with the release of the new Windows Phone. Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Phone also doesn't exist yet. When this version is out, it's what I'll recommend for getting started. In fact, at first, they weren't even going to have a desktop version, and the backlash they got from the developers was strong enough that they promised to release a desktop version "in the fall". Visual Studio Express 2012 for Desktop would be my recommended starting point if you don't want to make XNA games, just general C# applications. Again, start with Visual C# Express 2010 and switch over once you've gotten through the basics. It runs on Windows 7 and Vista, but the starting points for web development, like Metro-style apps, is a bit more complicated. It has some, but not all of the same limitations that the "for Windows 8" one had. Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web is designed for making web applications. At a minimum, start with Visual C# Express 2010, and after you've gotten the hang of things, switch over. Furthermore, the starting point for a Metro-style app is a higher level than the console apps that we'll start with in these tutorials. So if you want to use this, you need to install Windows 8 (which hasn't been fully released yet, and note that at least when I installed it, it wiped out all of my existing programs, but not files) and what you do won't work on other platforms. This version exists because Microsoft is really trying to push the Metro stuff, in an effort to get better apps for their tablet and phone systems. (The apparently don't want to call it that, but it's what everyone calls it.) Metro-style apps DO NOT WORK on Windows XP, Vista, or 7, and there's a lot of things they can't do. To start, Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8 is designed for making "metro" style apps. But each of these have small problems that… well… make me recommend to you that you start with Visual C# Express 2010 anyway, at least until you get off the ground. They advertise four different flavors of this: one for Windows 8 "metro" style apps, one for web, one for desktop, and one for Windows 7/8 phone development. Instead, you can take a look at the various flavors of Visual Studio Express 2012.
If you're willing to pay, the full Visual Studio 2012 version is what you want. If you're not planning on making XNA games, you can begin to consider the 2012 versions.
I'm sure it is coming in time, but for now, if you're going through these tutorials because you want to make XNA games, you'll want to stick with Visual Studio 2010 or Visual C# Express 2010 for the time being. Like when the 2010 versions were released, there's not immediate support for XNA yet. The new 2012 versions of the Visual Studio family were released in the summer of 2012, but I'm having a hard time recommending them to people right away. A Note about the 2012 Versions of Visual Studio So let's get going, and install us a nice free version of Visual C# Express. I, however, do most of my coding in the free Express version, and you can too.
Just so you are fully informed, though, the full version is called Visual Studio 2010, and is, for the record, a very nice program. There is a version of the program that we are going to install that is not free, and it has more features, but for all of the basics (and in fact, for a whole lot more than just the basics) the free version is going to be more than enough.
This version is completely free! In fact, everything I'm going to tell you how to use, throughout all of these tutorials, will be completely free. Welcome to the world of C# programming! Your first step, before writing a single line of code, will be to download and install the latest version of Microsoft Visual C# Express, which is the 2010 version.
It can be downloaded and installed like you'd expect. That program is Microsoft Visual C# Express 2010.