A Software Factory is a package of tools, processes, and guidance that extends the Visual Studio developer platform to optimize it for a specific type of application, such as an occasionally connected client or a Windows Communication Foundation service, Somasegar said.

"Over the last year, Microsoft has been investing in Software Factories, which aim to bring the benefits of automation found in other industries to software development, resulting in improved quality, consistency, and time-to-market," Somaseger said.

"In practical terms, a factory provides such capabilities as wizards, templates, designers, code generation, and documentation, and guides a team through the development process by surfacing tools and content appropriate to the task at hand," he said.

There have been four factories: , for Windows Mobile application development; , for occasionally connected client applications; , for Web applications, and , for building Web services. Users also can build their own factories from within Visual Studio.

But the Software Factory concept and the number of downloads so far failed to impress one industry analyst. The download figure is a pretty small number, said Greg DeMichillie, lead analyst for software development tools at Directions on Microsoft.