Due to the price ($0.00), I have been using Visual Studio Express 2010.

Microsoft has announced a price reduction in anticipation of the release of new versions.

Visual Basic Professional can be bought for $499.00 without MSDN. It is implied that buying it will provide discounts on upgrades to later versions (I am not sure of this).

That price is a bit much for me, but I am sorely tempted. I am wondering what Professional provides that Express 2010 does not.
BTW: So far I have been running all my projects using IDE Debug Mode. Can Express 2010 produce a Stand-Alone running program? I assume that Professional can & would be interested in being able to run on systems without the Visual Studio IDE

Also what are the chances of a later version of Express?

Would appreciate any information relating to the above.