title: Why do you need to subscribe to Visual Studio Dev Essentials to download a previous version of Visual Studio?
body: <p>I am following along with a book that requires me to have a previous version of Visual Studio (2010). The link from the book, <a href="https://microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/professional" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/professional</a>  now redirects to <a href="https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/</a> but after using the search bar to look for 2010 version I am directed to <a href="https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/older-downloads/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/older-downloads/</a> where the download I need is available and shown.
  However on the page it says to "Select a product below and click on the download button to log in to your Visual Studio (MSDN) subscription or join the free Dev Essentials program, to gain access to the older versions."</p>
  
  <p>My question is why do I need to set up an account for the 'Dev Essentials program' and am not able to simply download the software? Does the reason include needing to assign an id to the people who download an older version? Also I am looking for an answer that includes any information about the program itself, your experience with it, and any benefits of linking it to my account. </p>