Any student with a cooperating higher-education centre can get loads of free Microsoft software (of notability, VS 2010, Expression Studio 4) through DreamSpark[1] as well as getting Office for a huge discount[2] (at least in the UK).

[1] https://www.dreamspark.com/default.aspx [2] http://store.digitalriver.com/store?Action=DisplayStudentHer...