Installing Visual Studio
Visual Studio (not to be confused with Visual Studio Code) is the full IDE you'll use throughout this course. It's free for individuals and open-source work via the Community edition.
Visual Studio vs VS Code
Visual Studio is a full-featured IDE for C# development. VS Code is a lightweight editor. For this course, we use Visual Studio.
Step 1 — Download the installer
Go to visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads and download
Visual Studio Community 2022. It's completely free.
Step 2 — Run the installer
The installer first downloads a small bootstrapper, then shows you a screen of "workloads" — bundles of tools for different types of development. Don't select anything yet; the next lesson covers exactly which workloads you need for this course.
Step 3 — Sign in (optional but recommended)
You can sign in with a free Microsoft account to sync settings across machines, but it's optional — you can also click "Not now, maybe later."
Step 4 — Choose your theme and start
Pick Dark, Light, or Blue — purely cosmetic. Click "Start Visual Studio."
Key Takeaway
Visual Studio Community is completely free and includes everything you need for C# development.