Download Visual Studio Express 2008 now

[Martin v. Loewis]

Microsoft has just released Visual Studio 2010, along with its free (of
charge) Express edition. Following a tradition, they are likely to
withdraw support and availability for VS 2008 Express some time in the
future.

Python 2.6, 2.7, and 3.1 are all built with that release (i.e. 2008).
Because of another long tradition, Python extension modules must be
built with the same compiler version (more specifically, CRT version) as
Python itself. So to build extension modules for any of these releases,
you need to have a copy of VS 2008 or VS 2008 Express.

If you are planning to build Python extension modules in the next five
years, I recommend that you obtain a copy of VS Express, just in case
Microsoft removes it from their servers. As mentioned, it's free of
charge. When downloading it for later use, it's probably best to get the
offline ISO image release, available from

http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/#2008-All

Disclaimer: I'm not connected with Microsoft or its release process. Any
claim on future actions that Microsoft may take is purely hypothetical.

Regards,
Martin