The dev tools for Windows are free too. http://www.microsoft.com/express/ Having them on the disc might be nice for a few people, but in general you're better off downloading the tools so you get the latest stuff. I haven't had any real experience with XCode, but several of my friends have, and each of them has said it doesn't hold a candle to Visual Studio. What kind of static code analysis are you looking for? The Microsoft C/C++ compiler includes PreFAST (/analyze switch) which works wonders if you use SAL annotations. For the .NET world there's FxCop. Does that not cover what you're looking for?