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What is Visual Studio?

Visual Studio is a powerful developer tool that you can use to complete the entire development cycle in one place. It's a comprehensive integrated development environment (IDE) that you can use to write, edit, debug, and build code, and then deploy your app. Visual Studio includes compilers, code completion tools, source control, extensions, and many other features to enhance every stage of the software development process. This article provides an overview of Visual Studio.

Diagram that shows the software development cycle.

With the variety of features and language support in Visual Studio, you can grow from writing your first "Hello World" program to developing and deploying apps. For example, build, debug, and test .NET and C++ apps, edit ASP.NET pages in the web designer view, develop cross-platform mobile and desktop apps with .NET, or build responsive web UIs in C#.

To install Visual Studio, select the following button, and choose the edition of Visual Studio to download.

Download Visual Studio

To install Visual Studio, select the following button, and choose the edition of Visual Studio to download.

Download Visual Studio

Why use Visual Studio?

Visual Studio provides developers with a feature-rich development environment to develop code efficiently and collaboratively.

  • Workload-based installer. Install only what you need.
  • Powerful coding tools and features. Everything you need to build your apps in one place.
  • Multiple-language support. Code in C++, C#, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, and more.
  • Cross-platform development. Build apps for any platform.
  • Version control integration. Collaborate on code with teammates.
  • AI-assisted development. Write code efficiently with AI assistance.

Discover Visual Studio

Visual Studio supports different parts of the software development cycle.

Develop your code

The Visual Studio IDE provides features that make it easier for you to write and manage your code with confidence. For example, you can code quickly and accurately by using AI-assisted development tools. These tools include GitHub Copilot and IntelliCode. Make quick improvements to your code by reviewing tips, indicated by a light bulb icon, that suggest actions, or expand and collapse blocks of code by using outlining. Organize and explore your code by using Solution Explorer, which shows your code organized by files, or Class View, which shows your code organized by classes.

Learn more about features in the IDE that help you organize and edit content:

AI-assisted development

GitHub Copilot, GitHub Copilot Chat, and IntelliCode assist you in writing code faster and with greater accuracy, help you develop a deeper understanding of the codebase, and help with other development tasks such as writing unit tests, debugging, and profiling.

Learn more about AI-assisted development in Visual Studio.

Get started with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio:

Build your app

You can compile and build your applications to create builds immediately and test them in a debugger. You can run multi-processor builds for C++ and C# projects. Visual Studio also provides several options that you can configure when you build applications. You can create a custom build configuration, use the built-in configurations, hide certain warning messages, or increase build output information.

Learn more about how to compile and build in Visual Studio:

Debug your code

Integrated debugging in Visual Studio enables you to easily debug, profile, and diagnose code. You can step through your code and look at the values stored in variables, set watches on variables to see when values change, and examine the execution path of your code. Visual Studio also provides other ways to debug your code while it runs.

Learn more about debugging in Visual Studio:

Test your code

You can write high-quality code by using comprehensive testing tools in Visual Studio. Unit tests give developers and testers a quick way to find logic errors in code. You can analyze how much code you're testing and see instant results in a test suite. Know the impact of every change you make by using advanced features that test code while you type.

Learn more about the testing tools available in Visual Studio:

Version control

By using the integrated Git features in Visual Studio, you can clone, create, or open your own repositories. The Git tool window provides everything you need to commit and push changes, manage branches, and resolve merge conflicts. If you have a GitHub account, you can manage repos directly within Visual Studio.

Learn more about version control in Visual Studio:

Collaborate

Visual Studio Live Share enables real-time collaborative development. With Live Share, you can share your project with your peers, regardless of the language or platform. Resolve issues fast by allowing your team to connect, navigate, set break points, and type in your editor session.

Learn more about collaborating with Live Share:

Deploy your app

When you deploy an application, service, or component, you distribute it for installation on other computers, devices, or servers, or in the cloud. You can choose the appropriate method in Visual Studio for the type of deployment that you need. Share your apps and code by publishing to the web or Azure, or by deploying to a network share or a local folder.

Learn more about how to deploy your app by using Visual Studio:

Choose your Visual Studio edition

There are three editions of Visual Studio:

  • Community. A free, fully featured IDE for students, open-source developers, and individual developers.
  • Professional. A subscription-based option for individual developers or small teams.
  • Enterprise. A subscription-based option for small-to-large business and enterprise organizations.

Compare features across Visual Studio editions and get the Visual Studio edition that best fits your needs.

Install Visual Studio

To install Visual Studio, select the following button, and then choose the edition of Visual Studio.

Download Visual Studio

Download Visual Studio

Get started

Get started with one of the following language-specific tutorials:

Next step

  • Tour the IDE to get familiar with the IDE features and to learn how to use it for basic tasks.