Microsoft Publishes RC of Visual Studio 2012 Premium and Ultimate

Microsoft is making even more development tools available for those interested in coming up with apps for its latest Windows platform releases.

In addition to making available for download the Release Preview of Windows 8, the Redmond-based company also launched RC flavors of Visual Studio 2012, Premium and Ultimate.

Through the Release Candidate version of Visual Studio 2012, developers will be able to easily design and deploy compelling applications, Microsoft notes.

The new releases arrive with support for Windows 7 (x86 and x64), Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64), Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate(x64), and for the newly-launched Windows 8 Release Preview (x86 and x64).

Before downloading the files, devs should keep in mind that Visual Studio 2012 RC requires a 1.6 GHz or faster processor, 1 GB of RAM (1.5 GB if running on a virtual machine), 10 GB of available hard disk space, and a DirectX 9-capable video card that runs at 1024 x 768 or higher display resolution.

Microsoft Visual Studio Premium 2012 RC delivers an integrated environment for planning, development, testing and automation of apps. Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2012 RC should prove a great solution for teams engaged in building software.

The latest release of these tools brings along a series of fixes for issues previously found to affect the developer experience with them.

However, there is still a series of issues that would affect the development process, and application builders should have a look at them to know what to expect before starting their work with the tools. The Visual Studio 11 RC Readme offers a full overview of these issues.

Below, you will find links to the available downloadable files of both Microsoft Visual Studio Premium 2012 RC and Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2012 RC. Each of them is available both through a web installer, as well as an ISO image, for local storage.

Download Microsoft Visual Studio Premium 2012 RC

Download Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2012 RC