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Because of the capabilities Visual Studio has to track large projects we've benefited from improved productivity using this IDE. We don't have to use multiple tools to build out a project. I don't consider it a negative, but to use a tool like Visual Studio you have to invest the money in buying hardware that's fast enough to run the IDE. Description Easily build, test, deploy, and manage scalable apps and services on the Microsoft cloud. Install to view resources in Cloud Explorer, create resources using Azure Manage tools, build applications for Azure Web and Cloud Services, and perform big data operations using Azure Datalake tools. Rating & Review Visual Micro is an Arduino compatible Build, Upload and Debugging solution for Visual Studio 2017 & 2019. License: Perpetual or Yearly Licenses are available from $12 per year (includes forum support and updates).
In this 5-10 minute introduction to the Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE), we'll take a tour of some of the windows, menus, and other UI features.
If you haven't already installed Visual Studio, go to the Visual Studio downloads page to install it for free.
If you haven't already installed Visual Studio, go to the Visual Studio downloads page to install it for free.
Start Page
The first thing you'll see after you open Visual Studio is most likely the Start Page. The Start Page is designed as a 'hub' to help you find the commands and project files you need faster. The Recent section displays projects and folders you've worked on recently. Under New project, you can click a link to bring up the New Project dialog box, or under Open, you can open an existing code project or folder. On the right is a feed of the latest developer news.
If you close the Start Page and want to see it again, you can reopen it from the File menu.
Start window
The first thing you'll see after you open Visual Studio is the start window. The start window is designed to help you 'get to code' faster. It has options to clone or check out code, open an existing project or solution, create a new project, or simply open a folder that contains some code files.
If this is the first time you're using Visual Studio, your recent projects list will be empty.
If you work with non-MSBuild based codebases, you'll use the Open a local folder option to open your code in Visual Studio. For more information, see Develop code in Visual Studio without projects or solutions. Otherwise, you can create a new project or clone a project from a source provider such as GitHub or Azure DevOps.
The Continue without code option simply opens the Visual Studio development environment without any specific project or code loaded. You might choose this option to join a Live Share session or attach to a process for debugging. You can also press Esc to close the start window and open the IDE.
Create a project
To continue exploring Visual Studio's features, let's create a new project.
On the Start Page, in the search box under New project, type in console to filter the list of project types to those that contain 'console' in their name.
Visual Studio provides various kinds of project templates that help you get started coding quickly. Choose a C# Console App (.NET Core) project template. (Alternatively, if you're a Visual Basic, C++, Javascript, or other language developer, feel free to create a project in one of those languages. The UI we'll be looking at is similar for all programming languages.)
In the New Project dialog box that appears, accept the default project name and choose OK.
On the start window, choose Create a new project.
The Create a new project window opens and shows several project templates. A template contains the basic files and settings required for a given project type.
Here, you can search, filter, and pick a project template. It also shows a list of your recently used project templates.
In the search box at the top, type in console to filter the list of project types to those that contain 'console' in their name. Further refine the search results by picking C# (or another language of your choice) from the All language drop-down list.
If you selected C#, Visual Basic, or F# as your language, select the Console Application template, and then choose Next. (If you selected a different language, just pick any template. The UI we'll be looking at is similar for all programming languages.)
On the Configure your new project window, accept the default project name and location, and then choose Next.
In the Additional information window, verify that .NET Core 3.1 appears in the Target Framework drop-down menu, and then click Create.
The project is created and a file named Program.cs opens in the Editor window. The Editor shows the contents of files and is where you'll do most of your coding work in Visual Studio.
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Solution Explorer
Solution Explorer, which is typically on the right-hand side of Visual Studio, shows you a graphical representation of the hierarchy of files and folders in your project, solution, or code folder. You can browse the hierarchy and navigate to a file in Solution Explorer.
Menus
The menu bar along the top of Visual Studio groups commands into categories. For example, the Project menu contains commands related to the project you're working in. On the Tools menu, you can customize how Visual Studio behaves by selecting Options, or add features to your installation by selecting Get Tools and Features.
Error List
Open the Error List window by choosing the View menu, and then Error List.
The Error List shows you errors, warning, and messages regarding the current state of your code. If there are any errors (such as a missing brace or semicolon) in your file, or anywhere in your project, they're listed here.
Output window
The Output window shows you output messages from building your project and from your source control provider.
Let's build the project to see some build output. From the Build menu, choose Build Solution. The Output window automatically obtains focus and display a successful build message.
Search box
The search box is a quick and easy way to navigate to pretty much anything in Visual Studio. You can enter some text related to what you want to do, and it'll show you a list of options that pertain to the text. For example, imagine you want to increase the build output's verbosity to display additional details about what exactly build is doing. Here's how you might do that:
Locate the Quick Launch search box in the upper right of the IDE. (Alternatively, press Ctrl+Q to access it.)
Type verbosity into the search box. From the displayed results, choose Projects and Solutions --> Build and Run under the Options category.
The Options dialog box opens to the Build and Run options page.
Press Ctrl+Q to activate the search box in the upper part of the IDE.
Type verbosity into the search box. From the displayed results, choose Change MSBuild verbosity.
The Options dialog box opens to the Build and Run options page.
Under MSBuild project build output verbosity, choose Normal, and then click OK.
Build the project again by right-clicking on the ConsoleApp1 project in Solution Explorer and choosing Rebuild from the context menu.
This time the Output window shows more verbose logging from the build process, including which files were copied where.
Send Feedback menu
Should you encounter any problems while you're using Visual Studio, or if you have suggestions for how to improve the product, you can use the Send Feedback menu near the top of the Visual Studio window.
Next steps
We've looked at just a few of the features of Visual Studio to get acquainted with the user interface. To explore further:
See also
Microsoft has announced 64-bit Visual Studio, but in its rush towards modern development some developers using older Windows or Azure technology are feeling left behind.
The forthcoming release of 64-bit Visual Studio 2022 (VS 2022) is huge news for devs who have been requesting this for over a decade. But the company still has some tricky issues to navigate with its developer community, especially those using older Microsoft technology, as well as areas where the full Visual Studio finds it hard to keep up with its nimbler cross-platform cousin, VS Code.
The context here is that today's Microsoft cares most about winning developers for its Azure platform. The combination of VS Code and GitHub is strategic because, although these tools work fine with competing platforms like AWS or Google Cloud, Microsoft can ensure that Azure is well integrated.
In addition, features like the forthcoming GitHub Codespaces, remote development environments, run on Azure. Microsoft is also improving Visual Studio for Azure and GitHub development. Corporate veep of product Amanda Silver promised that VS 2022 will set up 'a complete CI/CD solution when you first create a project' based on GitHub workflows and actions as well as Azure resources.
This kind of pre-baked wizardry saves time for developers and keeps them hooked on Microsoft's platform.
Microsoft bows to the inevitable and takes Visual Studio 64-bit for 2022 version
READ MOREThat said, there are a few problems with Visual Studio in a modern development context. The first is that it runs mainly on Windows (there is a Visual Studio Mac, of which we will say more in a moment). Modern development is dominated by web and mobile clients and Windows is increasingly isolated as the only common platform that is not Unix-like. This can cause friction with things like line endings, filemode settings, Bash scripts, and Node.js modules when some developers are on Windows and some on Mac or Linux.
Microsoft has invested in Windows Subsystem for Linux to make working on Windows a hybrid Windows/Linux experience – but VS Code is ahead of Visual Studio with strong support for WSL already.
A second issue is that Visual Studio is not ideal for JavaScript and TypeScript debugging, which involves browser integration.
Git integration is a third issue. Git integration in VS Code is excellent, but in Visual Studio there are issues like lack of submodule support, where in effect multiple repositories are open. 'Stop rewriting the basic git experience to make things nicer and start including this which is something developers are really blocked by!' said developer Joris Kommeren in response to a post from the team about Git support earlier this week.
Microsoft Program Manger Pratik Nadagouda answered that 'it's a tough, complex problem to solve. And we've started down that path by first tackling multi-repo support.'
Live in my new world or die in your old one
Another challenge for Microsoft is that as it adapts Visual Studio to fit better with modern development, it risks leaving behind developers still using older technology. Two examples are Azure DevOps, the software development and lifecycle manager which evolved from Team Foundation Server, and Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO), the old set of tools for extending Microsoft Office.
Azure DevOps users are concerned that as Microsoft improves GitHub support in Visual Studio, their experience is going backwards. When Microsoft introduced a 'new Git experience,' using Azure DevOps became harder. 'I've just created a repo and when I select 'push' my two options are GitHub and GitHub Enterprise. Yeah – NO,' said developer Howard Richards. 'I know that GitHub is 'hip,' but it really seems like Microsoft is just throwing DevOps Repos under the bus with all of this focus on GitHub,' said another.
What about VSTO?
A long-running feature request to port VSTO to .NET 5 (formerly called .NET Core) is so far unresolved. The problem here is that Microsoft has been trying to get developers to migrate Office add-ins to JavaScript and a web-based model, which works in Office 365 and cross-platform, but developers say that this approach is less powerful and that there are no porting tools.
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'My company relies on VSTO to deliver our product, and while I understand that OfficeJS is the future, we need to be able to maintain our current product for the next several years while an OfficeJS-based successor is developed. Additionally, VSTO offers capabilities that OfficeJS simply does not... I would also note that VSTO has received essentially no updates since 2010,' said developer Eric Smith.
Arduino Ide For Microsoft Visual Studio
'Many of our core internal processes are enabled by in-house VSTO addins that support our domain experts. This relies on a C# codebase and is maintained by engineers with primarily C# experience. The last time I looked Office Addins didn't support everything that we do in our VSTO addins, and regardless it would be extremely costly for us to port this to JavaScript and re-train the team,' said another.
Past experience suggests that while Microsoft will maintain compatibility with its old technologies (such as VSTO add-ins) for a long time, it will not put significant further investment into them.
More Linux than Windows
These real-world business needs illustrate how Microsoft is being pulled two ways, pressed by its most loyal Windows-based developers to maintain and enhance their tools, while also transitioning to a cloud-based platform that is more Linux than Windows.
What about cross-platform Visual Studio? One might think that VS Code is the cross-platform tool, but Microsoft also has Visual Studio for Mac as well as requests for Visual Studio for Linux. There are also requests for a native ARM64 variant.
The Mac version is perhaps a historical accident since it arrived at Microsoft via Xamarin and was originally based on a .NET IDE called MonoDevelop. Silver said: 'We're working to move Visual Studio for Mac to native macOS UI,' which raises many questions about what is happening to this tool and whether more of its code will be written in C++.
It is currently less capable than Visual Studio on Windows, with its main role still for Xamarin development, which will become MAUI (Multi-Platform pp UI). It makes sense for Microsoft to share code between Visual Studio Windows and Mac as far as possible, and more cross-platform code would help with a possible future Visual Studio for Linux, but it may be hard to take Visual Studio in that cross-platform direction without further eroding its features for Windows-only development. ®
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