Hi Lei,

Here's how this works. There's an option that controls whether configuration
manager and other related commands are available. It's in the Tools\Options
dialog - Projects and Solutions\General, "Show advanced build
configurations" (you may need to click on the "Show all settings" checkbox
in the dialog). If I recall correctly, it's by default off in Express SKUs
and that's why the Configuration Manager command is not available. However,
that option is overriden if you have modified default configurations (added
one for example) - in that case Configuration Manager is available
regardless of that option. So for example if you open a project from
somewhere else that has modified configurations, this option would be
overriden, which would explain what you're seeing.

I'm not sure I understand your second question. Which language are you
using? In C#, you can define conditional compilation symbols in project
properties, the Build tab. In C++, it's project properties and then
C/C++\Preprocessor, "Preprocessor definitions". Does this answer your
question?

hope that helps,
Lukasz