Finally the emails for Visual Studio were sent out correctly. But things apparently changed on the MSDNAA Online Software System Web site and a couple of other issues came up ...
Visual Studio 2005 - Download or no download?
If you visit the MSDNAA Online Software System Web site (for the UWM Business School) there is a list of software products, including the Visual Studio .NET 2005 Professional - Full Install . And this is what students will need for this course. However, clicking on this link one only gets the option to order the CDs for $34.95. What happened to the free download? It turns out that it is still there, but well hidden.
Here is how to get there. Go to the main software page with the list of products. There is a drop down list for "Search product by titles". This list contains the items Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition - CD 1 (and another for CD 2). After selecting the item and clicking "Go" the option for free download appears.
Whether download or physical CDs, all the needed components are included. There should be no need to look for other components elsewhere. Also make sure it is Visual Studio 2005 not 2003.
How to deal with the downloaded ISO image?
The download file is an ISO image of the CD. This means a burning tool that can burn an ISO image to a CD is needed. This cannot be accomplished by using the out of the box functionality provided in Windows. Check if you have a CD/DVD burning tool (i.e., Roxio Easy CD Creator) on your machine. If not, there are free tools for download (i.e., CDBurnerXP) . There is also an option that circumvents the need to burn a physical CD. There are CD/DVD emulators such as Magic Disc that take the ISO image file directly and mimic a CD/DVD drive.
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