What version of Visual Studio do I need to develop Windows Mobile 6.1 apps?

Question

What version of Visual Studio do I need to develop Windows Mobile 6.1 apps?

I wish to write an application for a device running Windows Mobile 6.1 with Visual Studio. I hear the Express versions of Visual Studio do not support this, but some sites I've read say the standard editions do, some say only the professional do.

Some also say you can use Visual Studio 2010, some say you can only use 2008.

I'm currently running Visual Studio 2012 Express which I don't believe supports Mobile, let alone 6.1.

Answer 1

To support what @HansPassant has answered, here is a link of Visual Studio 2008 edition comparison document from Microsoft,

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7940

As page 19 (of the PDF version) indicates, you will have to use Visual Studio 2008 Professional edition and above so as to work on "Smart Device".

Starting from Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft discontinued such mobile platform support,

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sa69he4t(v=vs.100).aspx