Downloading, launching, and configuring an IDE is the first step that you should perform to start developing applications for smartphones, tablets, and desktops running on the Windows 10 operating system. With the usage of a convenient environment, a developer can easily design UI, write code, debug the application, as well as deploy it on an emulator or a real device.
In this book, we will use Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2015.
Note
Of course, Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2015 is not the only IDE that one can use to develop solutions for Windows 10. There are also other versions of Microsoft Visual Studio that you could use, such as Professional and Enterprise. You can take a look at the comparison between the various versions of Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 at: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/vs-2015-product-editions .
To step through this recipe, you need a PC that meets the requirements that are necessary to run Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2015.
To install the IDE, you need to perform the following steps:
Download the installation file of Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2015 from: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/visual-studio-community-vs .
Open the downloaded file and wait until the installer is started.
Choose the Custom installation type, as presented in the following image (on the left). Then, click on the Next button.
Check all the options within the Universal Windows App Development Tools group in the Select features part, as shown in the image (on the right). Then, click on Next.
Verify a list within the Selected features group and click on Install.
Wait until the Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2015 is installed and the Setup Completed message is presented. You can monitor the progress of the installation and the downloading of necessary data using the Acquiring and Applying progress bars presented by the installer.
Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2015 allows you to develop various kinds of applications, not only solutions running on devices with the Windows 10 operating system. What is interesting is that it is also possible to develop applications for Android and iOS platforms using the same IDE, by applying the Xamarin platform. A set of suitable tools for this purpose can be installed by selecting the Cross Platform Mobile Development option while installing the IDE, as shown in the preceding screenshot (on the right). If you want to learn more about Xamarin, you could visit https://www.xamarin.com/ .
What is more, Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2015 also supports other types of applications, such as web and desktop applications, as well as allows to use various languages, including C#, C++, and even F#. If you want to learn more about the various possibilities of the IDE, let's take a look at https://www.visualstudio.com/ .
Of course, during the installation of the IDE, you can select more features than mentioned in this recipe. In such a case, apart from developing Windows 10-based solutions, you can use the same IDE for other development scenarios.