Tag Archives: Visual Studio 2012

Xamarin is now included for free in Visual Studio

Starting April of 2016, Visual Studio now includes Xamarin for free. This is the case for every edition of Visual Studio, including Visual Studio Community Edition, which is free as well.

With Xamarin you can develop and publish native apps for iOS and Android using C# or F# from directly within Visual Studio with no limits on app size.

For developers that are using Mac, Xamarin Studio is now available as a benefit of your Visual Studio Professional or Enterprise subscription. Developers can use the newly-created Xamarin Studio Community Edition for free.

You can visit Xamarin’s store to download Xamarin for free. Keep in mind that, Xamarin, although free, is license restricted for bigger companies. If you want to use Xamarin you will need to comply to one of the following license terms:

  • Individual license – If you are an individual working on your own applications to sell or for any other purpose, you may use the software to develop and test those applications.
  • Organization licenses – If you are an organization, your users may use the software as follows:
    • Any number of your users may use the software to develop and test your applications released under Open Source Initiative (OSI) approved open source software licenses.
    • Any number of your users may use the software to develop and test extensions to Visual Studio.
    • Any number of your users may use the software to develop and test your applications as part of online or in person classroom training and education, or for performing academic research.
    • If none of the above apply, and you are also not an enterprise (defined below), then up to 5 of your individual users can use the software concurrently to develop and test your applications.
    • If you are an enterprise, your employees and contractors may not use the software to develop or test your applications, except for open source and education purposes as permitted above. An enterprise is any organization and its affiliates who collectively have either (a) more than 250 PCs or users or (b) more than one million US dollars (or the equivalent in other currencies) in annual revenues, and enterprise means those entities that control (via majority ownership), are controlled by, or are under common control with an organization.
  • Demo use – The uses permitted above include use of the software in demonstrating your applications.

Visual Studio 2012 Update 3

Microsoft released Visual Studio 2012 Update 3 (Visual Studio 2012.3) on June 26, 2013. This update introduces TFS build improvements as well as various bug fixes.

You can download the update from Microsoft’s download centre using the links below. Alternative you can use the links bellow to download the installation file that better suits your needs.

Note: Visual Studio 2012 Update 4 is now available. You can download it for free using the download links below.

Download Links

Web installation file: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9821199
Offline installation file: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9833082

Visual Studio 2012 Update 2

Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 (Visual Studio 2012.2). This update contains numerous features as well as bug fixes and also includes all the changes of the first update which means you can safely skip update 1 if you haven’t already installed it.

For detailed information on what update 2 has to offer visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2797912

Visual Studio 2012 Update 3 is now available. Read Visual Studio 2012 Update 3 for more information.

Disable all caps menus in Microsoft Visual Studio 2012

If you are interested in changing the Visual Studio’s 2012 menu from this

Visual Studio 2012 menu all caps

to this

Visual Studio 2012 menu normal
Follow the instructions below.

How to disable all caps.

  1. Open up regedit. (Start -> Run -> Type regedit)
  2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\General.
  3. Add a new DWORD value with the name SuppressUppercaseConversion.
  4. Set its hexadecimal value to 1.

That is all, simply restart Visual Studio and the menu should not be in all caps now.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2012

Visual StudioMicrosoft has officially announced the release of Visual Studio 2012.

In addition to the things we know and love about the Visual Studio products, the newest version provides the core tools that are required to build compelling, innovative Windows Metro style applications. There are also numerous of new features and enchantments that come with this version. If you are interested in finding what are those Microsoft already created a web page which you can access here that contains all the information you will need about this release.

Also you need to keep in mind that the interface of the new Visual Studio has changed drastically since this version now uses a Metro style interface. If you are one of those people that didn’t particularly like the Metro style you might need to consider that before rushing to upgrade.

Download Visual Studio 2012 Express for Windows 8
Visual Studio 2012 Online Installer (922kb)
Visual Studio 2012 Offline Installer (403MB)
Visual Studio 2012 Language Pack (20.2MB)