All you need is to have IIS running and have the framework install and then it will all work, you are correct. You can use anything for asp.net, but I suggest something more substantial then notepad or something that is geared for just html. Webmatrix is decent. I use dreamweaver myself though. You just need something with line numbers and proper syntax hylighting (an html editer is not going to have the correct syntax hylighting for vb.net or c#). However: If you want to compile your code you are going to need to use vs.net or mono, those are the only two things that I know of that have compliers. But if you use mono you will be using their modded form of apache too, not iis or the .net framework. Even then that only supports c# at the moment. If you want your c++ compiled you will need visual studio probably. C++.net uses vs.net, but I do not know about C++ regular, if it can be compiled. I do not know anything about J++, but I know j# would need vs.net to compile. There might be some other compilers out there that you can find for free or for less, but I do not know about them. I do not use compiled code though... my files are just ascii files that compile on app start like most of the pack.