According to Ars Technica, the free Visual Studio Express 2011(or 2012) will no longer support building standard desktop applications using C++. It will only support building metro apps for the upcoming Windows 8 OS.

“If you want to develop desktop applications—anything that runs at the command line or on the conventional Windows desktop that remains a fully supported, integral, essential part of Windows 8—you’ll have two options: stick with the current Visual C++ 2010 Express and Visual C# 2010 Express products, or pay about $400-500 for Visual Studio 11 Professional. A second version, Visual Studio 11 Express for Web, will be able to produce HTML and JavaScript websites, and nothing more.”

As a long term user of Visual Studio Express edition, it is a blow to C++ developers worldwide. Microsoft must have its own reasons, but hoping that they will reconsider.