Following on from a previous entry

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,9cc83579-486f-4817-a95d-549691dab361.aspx

My Action Pack

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/sales_and_marketing/actionpack/

is up for renewal soon, so I am looking into the best way of getting the software I need. As I'm now self employed, this is a business expense so I'm looking at getting an MSDN subscription.

Looking at the 5 different levels, it would appear Professional is the minimum required to get a copy of Studio.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/howtobuy/subscribers/compare/

This retails at $1199

http://msdn.microsoft.com/howtobuy/subscribers/

There are savings to be made going with Open Licensing

http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2005/01/06/347470.aspx

http://www.greymatter.com/Developers/Microsoft/Home.asp#open

Moving onto VS2005, I've not discovered whether the open license agreement applies

http://msdn.microsoft.com/howtobuy/vs2005/subscriptions/default.aspx

All but the top level of MSDN comes without Office software, so it may be worth continuing with the Direct Access pack (at £199).