http://blogs.msdn.com/b/msr_er/archive/2012/09/28/tools-for-researchers-amp-up-the-power-of-visual-studio.aspxTools for Researchers Amp Up the Power of Visual Studio Learn about research tools and services that help bring your research to life. These versatile tools range from games to help you get started in a new programming language to analysis engines thaten-USTelligent Evolution Platform Developer Build (Build: 5.6.50428.7875)http://blogs.msdn.com/b/msr_er/archive/2012/09/28/tools-for-researchers-amp-up-the-power-of-visual-studio.aspx#10355233Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:45:35 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:10355233Microsoft Research Connections Team<p>Thank you for your comment. While the Dreamspark Pro program is essentially for university departments, it is relatively easy to setup a free Electronic License Management System (ELMS) which allows easy distribution of licenses to individual members of the department. Unfortunately, local laws governing anti-corruption practices prohibit us from distributing free software to researchers and faculty. We do hope your department can setup the ELMS system and provide you, and your colleagues, access to a large number of free tools from Microsoft and Microsoft Research.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=10355233" width="1" height="1">http://blogs.msdn.com/b/msr_er/archive/2012/09/28/tools-for-researchers-amp-up-the-power-of-visual-studio.aspx#10354243Fri, 28 Sep 2012 18:30:19 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:10354243davidacoder<p>I would much prefer to see efforts to make it easier for research faculty to get their hands at VS in the first place.</p> <p>If we want VS Ultimate, essentially the option is DreamSpark Pro. Acquiring that is a MAJOR pain because it is targeted at departments, not at individual researchers. Quite frankly, I rather just download the latest Python than try to get the process moving to get a subscription for my department.</p> <p>The irony here is that clearly MS is not trying to make any money on university researchers on their dev tools. But the way you distribute the software is so costly in terms of time and complexity to individual researchers that it scares away many.</p> <div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=10354243" width="1" height="1">