Learn to code in Visual Studio

Getting started with Visual Studio IDE

To develop any type of app or learn a language, you’ll be working in the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Beyond code editing, Visual Studio IDE brings together graphical designers, compilers, code completion tools, source control, extensions and many more features in one place.

Watch this short video to get familiar with the IDE and to learn how to use it for basic tasks.

Download and install the latest version of Visual Studio to get started. Visual Studio is free for learning and individual use. You can save installation time and disk space by selecting just the components needed. You can incrementally add more components later at any time as needed.

Components

Dev Essentials Visual Studio Blog

You can personalize the Visual Studio IDE in various ways to best support your own development style and requirements.

Visual Studio Personalization video screenshot

Prefer dark theme? Want to change the layout of windows to your liking? Have favorite keyboard shortcuts?

Check out this short video where we walk you through some cool personalization options like themes, fonts, window layout, and custom keyboard shortcuts available in Visual Studio.

Start a Tutorial

C++

C++, C, and assembly language development tools and libraries are available as part of Visual Studio on Windows. You can use C++ in Visual Studio to create anything from simple console to Windows desktop apps, from device drivers and operating system components to cross-platform games for mobile devices, and from small IoT devices to multi-server computing in the Azure cloud.

Desktops apps

Step by step tutorial

Let’s get started with something simple. Begin your learning by creating a console calculator app

Additional Guides

C++ in Visual Studio

.NET

Using Visual Studio and .NET, you can develop applications for desktop, web, mobile, games, and IoT. You can write .NET apps in C#, F# or Visual Basic language.

Desktop development using .NET Core

Video of Video of What is .NET? .NET Core 101 screenshot

Watch

Learn from .NET Core 101 video playlist

Step-by-step tutorial

To start simple, create a Windows console app with .NET Core. Also learn how to debug and publish

Ready to do more? Here’s another .NET Core step-by-step tutorial to follow along and learn:

Windows desktop app

Web/Cloud development using ASP.NET Core

Video of What is ASP.NET? ASP.NET Core 101 screenshot

Watch

ASP.NET 101 video series

Step by step tutorial

Create web app with ASP.NET Core Razor pages

Game development using Unity

Video of Introduction to Unity screenshot

Watch

Unity 101 video series. Watch how to code, debug and publish games using Unity and C#

Guides

Get to know game development in Visual Studio with Unity.

Learn more

Machine Learning using ML.NET

Watch

Video series

Step-by-step 10 minute tutorial

Using ML.NET in Visual Studio train and use your first machine learning model

JavaScript/TypeScript

Visual Studio provides rich support for JavaScript development, both using JavaScript directly, and also using the  TypeScript, an open-source language which builds on JavaScript and is often used in large size web app development.

Web application

Learn how to create an ASP.NET Core web application using Typescript

Additional guides

JavaScript and TypeScript in Visual Studio

Node.js

Visual Studio has built in tools for Node.js which is a platform for building fast and scalable server applications using JavaScript. Node.js is the runtime and  npm is the Package Manager for Node.js modules. Learn what makes Visual Studio a powerful node.js development environment.

Web/Cloud development with Node.js tools

Create a web app in Visual Studio using Node.js tools with Express web app framework

React Web UI

React is a popular JavaScript library developed by Facebook for building web application user interfaces. Create a simple web app using Node.js tools in Visual Studio with React. Join Node.js Tools for Visual Studio community on GitHub

Python

Watch

Python development in Visual Studio

Visual Studio is a powerful IDE for Python language through its built-in Python Development and Data Science workloads. Python is a popular, easy to learn, free to use programming language with many free libraries. In Visual Studio, use Python to build web applications, web services, desktop apps, scripting, and scientific computing. It is used by many universities, scientists, casual, and professional developers alike.

Data Science and Analytical applications

Step by step tutorial

Create your first Python app using interactive development

Desktop app

Step by step tutorial

Desktop app using Python in Visual Studio

Additional guides

Python in Visual Studio

Web applications

Step by step tutorial

Create a Python web app using Visual Studio with Django

Image for expanding your Visual Studio skills by area

Git/GitHub Tooling – Version Control

Visual Studio provides a first-class built-in Git and GitHub experience. Features like authentication, cloning, and creating new repositories are built into Visual Studio making it very easy to get started with Git and GitHub. You no longer need to rely on external tools to manage your source control nor need to be a Git expert to be able to utilize Git and GitHub in Visual Studio.