Rich,
VS.NET 2003 academic edition includes C++, C#, J# and VB.NET. The "express editions" have all the languages stripped out except the one you're interested in, so C++ Expess Edition will have only C++ and not the other languages. VS.NET 2003 also has support for building a simple MSI based installer for your output. The only difference between the academic edition and the professional edition is that the license prohibits you from redistributing the redistributables (i.e. you can provide a link to where users can download the DirectX runtime from the MS site required for your app, but you can't supply the DirectX runtime directly to them) and the help files (MSDN Library) isn't included, but you can access all the help online or download the Platform SDK help locally to your machine.
Ah, in that case I would be interested in getting a copy. Thanks. Jonathan