Hi Charlie,

Microsoft doesn't support add-ins in VS express so the answer has to be no but we have a few plans for next year that might allow vs express and some other tools to support Arduino.

If you really need to use vs express you will find a few ways to do that by browsing the internet. The solutions to not support all Arduino features and often require a little fiddling to get things working but they work well for some.

Ok, Atmel is okay and might offer some extra features over VS in the not to distant future.

I forgot to say that VS Pro can sometimes be obtained free for a few years by joining one of the free microsoft partner programs. The rules, for new 'joiners', of what software you get for free changes every so often so it might be a waste of time. But you get a lot of other stuff might might be useful so worth a look.

The offers I can recall are WebSiteSpark and DreamSpark. No credit card is required you just have to fill in the forms. The offers might not apply to you but I guess there is no harm in applying where you see fit 

Great to hear that thanks!