without .net?

I have the express editions of Visual Studio and wondered if I could use them to make apps that don't need the .net runtime.

If this can't be done, what other options do I have of producing apps with the latest c#, vb, c++ compilers?

Yes you can, after installing the platform SDK and some other stuff. All the info is available on the Microsoft sites.

Well, at least with C++ you can.

Like said above, you can produce native apps with c++.

c# and vb.net require the clr. So you're stuck with .NET, Mono, or possibly Portable.NET/DotGNU.( Though, afaik dotgnu seems to be way behind .net and mono. )

Mono is nice. A long ways back I used it to run a test app on a machine without .net. Just took some trial n error, by manually copying the mono files into my apps directory( as it would complain about such n such files missing ). All zipped up I think everything came to under 5mb.

Theres other options like embedding mono in a native program, or the supposed makebundle tool. Unfortunately I couldn't get makebundle to work... must be my lack of linux experience *shrugs*.

If you've got the cash, theres the salamander product that builds standalone exe's/dll's. http://www.remotesoft.com/linker/pricing.html