This workshop will be retired on May 1, 2025.
Heads up! To view this whole video, sign in with your Courses account or enroll in your free 7-day trial. Sign In Enroll
Preview
Start a free Courses trial
to watch this video
Learn how to install Visual Studio and about each installation option.
Related Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign upRelated Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign up
If you've already installed Visual Studio,
then you can go ahead and
0:00
skip to the next video.
0:04
In this video,
I'll walk you through the installation and
0:06
explain some of the options.
0:08
To install the free
edition of Visual Studio,
0:11
you'll need to open this
page in a web browser.
0:13
There's a link to it in
the teacher's notes.
0:16
I want to go over a few things before
we click on this download button here.
0:18
First let's click on
where it says features.
0:22
I found that these links provide
a good overview of it's capabilities.
0:25
You should check those
out if you're curious.
0:29
All right, click out of that.
0:31
Let's scroll down to where it says usage.
0:33
This explains who can use
Visual Studio for free.
0:39
You should read through
this to make sure that you
0:41
are permitted to use the free edition.
0:44
As an individual student you are probably
well within the limits of these terms.
0:46
Next, let's scroll down and click on
System requirements here under Resources.
0:51
And then Visual Studio Community 2015.
0:56
You should make sure that
your computer meets or
0:59
exceeds these system requirements.
1:03
Visual Studio is not
a trivial piece of software.
1:05
The requirements listed
here are the bare minimum.
1:08
The oldest OS supported is
Windows 7 Service Pack 1.
1:12
If you're developing Windows Store, or
1:16
Windows Universal Apps, you'll need
to be running at least Windows 8.1.
1:18
Finally, if you're running Windows 7,
you'll need to have Internet Explorer
1:22
version 10 or
above installed on your computer.
1:28
If that all looks good
let's start installing.
1:32
So, we'll go back to the first page.
1:35
Scroll up, and
click Download Community 2015.
1:39
This downloads a small
file on your computer.
1:44
This is only the web installer,
what it does is goes out and
1:49
downloads all of the other parts.
1:53
So go ahead and run that installer.
1:55
And click run.
1:57
Alright, so
now we're in the Visual Studio installer.
2:05
You can select a place to install it,
but I highly recommend that you
2:08
don't change this location unless you
have a really good reason for doing so.
2:11
You'll see we have two
options to pick from here.
2:16
Typical and custom.
2:18
Typical will install everything you
need to do classic Windows apps and
2:20
most web development using ASP.NET.
2:23
Custom let's you pick from a large
selection of additional features
2:26
and tools.
2:30
Let's take a minute to
look at what we have here.
2:31
I'll explain what most of these are, but
I recommend not installing them right now
2:34
unless you know for
sure that you'll be needing them.
2:38
They'll just make
the installation take longer.
2:40
The latest version of
Visual Studio has made it very easy
2:42
to add most of these things later
after the base IDE is installed.
2:45
Also, Microsoft may add more options
to this list in the future, so
2:49
don't be surprised if you see
something different in this list.
2:53
C# and
Visual Basic are both already installed.
2:56
You can add project types and
tools for C++, F#, and Python though.
3:00
Here's some tools for
Windows and web development.
3:04
ClickOnce is used to make
simple installers and
3:08
push out updates to Windows
desktop applications.
3:10
The SQL Server Data Tools provide a subset
of the features that are found in
3:13
Microsoft SQL server
management studio software.
3:17
If you're doing any web development at
all, you'll want the Web Developer Tools.
3:20
PowerShell Tools are used for
developing PowerShell scripts and modules.
3:24
Silverlight is Microsoft's
answer to Adobe's Flash for
3:28
interactive web applications.
3:33
Advances in modern web application
develop using HTLM5 and
3:35
JavaScript has motivated Microsoft
to deprecate Silverlight and
3:39
they don't recommend using it for
any new projects.
3:43
Universal Windows App Development Tools
are used to develop apps than can run on
3:46
any Windows 10 device.
3:50
This includes Windows 10 desktop or
any of the Windows 10 mobile devices.
3:52
The Windows Phone 8 tools are required
to make Windows Phone 8 apps, but with
3:57
the release of Windows 10, you probably
won't be doing any new apps using this.
4:02
Cross Platform Mobile Development
features are used for
4:06
developing apps that can run on Apple's
iOS, Google's Android, and Windows Phones.
4:11
In Visual Studio,
you have three different cross platform
4:16
app development methodologies
to choose from.
4:20
Xamarin, you write your apps in C#.
4:23
Apache Cordova allows you to develop
your apps using HTML and JavaScript.
4:25
This is especially handy for web
developers who want to make mobile apps.
4:31
The third method is to
write your apps using C++.
4:36
These apps run right on the device
hardware so they are potentially faster
4:40
and more battery efficient than apps
written in Java, C#, or JavaScript.
4:44
These other tools and SDK's are used for
various types of Android app development.
4:49
Under Common Tools, we have a couple of
tools that are used with the popular Git
4:54
version control system.
4:58
Last of all, the Visual Studio
Extensibility Tools are used for
5:00
creating extensions to Visual Studio.
5:04
If you choose Typical install,
then you can expect
5:07
installation to take about 20 minutes,
depending on your internet connection.
5:09
Of course, selecting some of these
options can make it take longer.
5:14
Because the installer needs to
download everything from the internet,
5:17
your computer should have a constant
internet connection for the duration.
5:20
Now let's click Next and
then Yes on the security message.
5:24
This is the part where the installer is
downloading and installing everything.
5:28
If for some reason the installer
wants you to restart your computer,
5:32
then just restart and
run the installer again.
5:36
I'm going to fast forward
the video through this part.
5:38
Alright, Visual Studio is installed.
5:41
You can launch it right now by
clicking the LAUNCH button.
5:44
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign upYou need to sign up for Treehouse in order to set up Workspace
Sign up