I just recently switched from Visual C++ 2010 Express to Visual Studio 2012 Express for Desktop. Since I use it often, I soon found myself looking for the Batch Build... option under the Build menu (or Solution Explorer → <solution>'s right-click menu).
At work, I have Visual Studio 2012 Professional and the Batch Build... option is where it was in Visual Studio 2010.
Has this feature been cut from the Express editions?
It turns out the Batch Build... feature still exists in the Express edition of Visual Studio 2012; it's just been hidden for some reason.
To access it, you can either assign a keyboard shortcut via menu Tools → Options... → Environment → Keyboard and finding Build.BatchBuild, or you can add it to the Build menu and the Solution context menu, where it used to be, via Tools → Customize... → Commands. The Build menu is under the menu bars named Build and the Solution context menu is under the context menus named Project and Solution Context Menus | Solution.
No, it hasn't been cut. I've been using it recently.
However, I have at least one solution where Batch Build is not present on the menu (and wasn't present in Visual Studio 2010, either). My guess is that there's something about the solution that Visual Studio doesn't like, and it disables the batch build feature - but I've never got to the bottom of it.
I would say that if you really need that feature, create a new solution and re-add the existing projects one by one.
You can also (Visual Studio 2013 Express) customize the menu to get the command (back): How to: Customize Menus and Toolbars in Visual Studio
