What is Visual Studio?
The Microsoft Visual Studio development system is a suite of development tools designed to aid software developers—whether they are novices or seasoned professionals—face complex challenges and create innovative solutions. Visual Studio's role is to improve the process of development and make the work of achieving breakthroughs easier and more satisfying

About Visual Studio
The Microsoft Visual Studio development system is a suite of development tools designed to aid software developers—whether they are novices or seasoned professionals—face complex challenges and create innovative solutions. Every day, software developers break through tough problems to create software that makes a difference in the lives of others. Visual Studio's role is to improve the process of development to make the work of achieving those breakthroughs easier and more satisfying.

How Visual Studio improves the process of development:

Productive
Visual Studio-branded tools continually deliver better ways for software developers to do more with less energy wasted on repetition and drudgery. From efficient code editors, IntelliSense, Wizards, and multiple coding languages in one integrated development environment (IDE) to high-end application life-cycle management (ALM) products in Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team System. New versions of Visual Studio keep bringing innovative tools to help developers focus on solving problems, not waste time on minutiae.

Integrated
With Visual Studio, software developers benefit from an integrated product experience that spans tools, servers, and services. Visual Studio products work well together—not just with one another, but also with other Microsoft software, such as Microsoft server products and the Microsoft Office system.

Comprehensive
Visual Studio offers a choice of tools for all phases of software development—development, testing, deployment, integration, and management—and for every kind of developer—from the novice to the skilled professional. Visual Studio is also engineered to support development across all types of devices—PCs, servers, the Web, and mobile devices.

Reliable
Visual Studio is engineered and tested to be consistently dependable, secure, interoperable, and compatible. Visual Studio offers an unmatched combination of security features, scalability, and interoperability. Although Visual Studio always incorporates forward-thinking features, it is designed to ensure backward-compatibility wherever possible.

Visual Studio and the Microsoft Application Platform
The Microsoft Application Platform is a portfolio of technology capabilities, core products, and best practice guidance focused on helping IT and development departments partner with the business to maximize opportunity.

As one of the core products of the Microsoft Application Platform, Visual Studio can help you drive the right business efficiencies, customer connections, and value-added services by providing a single, fully integrated development environment for all types of development, including Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Web, and mobile applications. Use Visual Studio development solutions to give your development team powerful ways to:
Increase productivity and quality through integrated and familiar tools.
Deploy, secure, and support your critical Web applications and infrastructure.
Reduce costs through better visibility of your development process.
Provide better predictability and planning through integrated process and methodology support

Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition is a comprehensive set of tools that accelerates the process of turning the developer’s vision into reality. Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition was engineered to support development projects that target the Web (including ASP.NET AJAX), Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, The 2007 Microsoft Office system, SQL Server 2008, and Windows Mobile devices. The number of platforms that developers must target to meet business needs is increasing rapidly. Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition provides the integrated toolset for addressing all of these needs by providing a superset of the functionality available in Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition.

Today’s developers face the challenge of targeting a broad range of platforms and crafting applications that quickly deliver value to the business. Integrated designers and language features in Visual Studio allow developers to build the connected applications demanded by today’s businesses while taking advantage of the .NET Framework 3.5 to reduce development time.

Deliver high-performance applications
Connect to the data you need, regardless of its location, and build data driven applications using Language Integrated Query (LINQ).

Build great client applications
Develop compelling solutions that leverage the user experience and capabilities of the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Windows Vista®.

Build powerful Web applications
Build rich, interactive applications using the ASP.NET AJAX interactive Web interfaces.

Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition System Requirements

Requirements vary for different combinations of components within Visual Studio 2008 Professional Editions. To install Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition, you need:
Computer with a 1.6 GHz or faster processor
Visual Studio 2008 can be installed on the following operating systems:
Windows Vista® (x86 & x64) - all editions except Starter Edition
Windows® XP (x86 & x64) with Service Pack 2 or later - all editions except Starter Edition
Windows Server® 2003 (x86 & x64) with Service Pack 1 or later (all editions)
Windows Server 2003 R2 (x86 and x64) or later (all editions)
384 MB of RAM or more (768 MB of RAM or more for Windows Vista)
2.2 GB of available hard-disk space
5400 RPM hard drive
1024 x 768 or higher-resolution display
DVD-ROM Drive
Additional features may require Internet access. Fees may apply