I've heard that there is a great deal of stuff you can't do in Standard. Someone posted on Amazon that the Learning VB.Net book that he bought contained many basic coding examples that couldn't be done with Standard.

"I purchased Microsoft Visual Basic.NET Standard under the misinformation that I was getting an actual functioning development package. I also purchased a book to help me get started "Using MS Visual Basic.NET" from Que. It was only after I attempted to work through the web application example did I find the problem. I only received a small portion of the program, which did not even let me work though the simple examples in the book.

Not only did I need the "Professional" version to perform any of the examples shown in the book; I needed to upgrade my operating system from XP Home Edition to XP Professional. This fact was well hidden in the documentation. In fact, it was only when I tried to install some missing files did I find that I could not create web applications. I could not create DLL's. I couldn't do a lot of the basic functions.

So in order to just use the program as advertised, I would need to spend another [$]+ to upgrade to the Professional version of VB and another [$] for XP Professional. Sure with rebate, it is "only" [$], but I am already into it for [$] for the VB.NET Standard.

The advertisement on the box states that I can upgrade my VB 6 applications, create XML documents, create class libraries. I can't even work through the simple examples, because the tools are not included.

Don't bother purchasing this edition. It may be a great product for the professional programer, but it is priced out of the league for the rest of us mortals."

Is the review found here.