Visual Studio takes a little while to install but it is a fairly easy process. Just download the install executable and work through the install wizard following the instructions below.
Download Visual Studio
Go to the following URL to download Visual Studio.
https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads
From there you can select the Community Edition which is totally free and will have all the tools you need to follow all of the examples throughout the book.
Click the Free Download button under Community to download the Community version of VS 2026.
The installer file named VisualStudioSetup.exe should now be in your Downloads folder.
Install Visual Studio
Run the Visual Installer in administrator mode by right clicking the Visual Studio install file and selecting “Run as administrator”.
Important: Make sure to run the Visual Studio Installer as Administrator as per the instructions above.
Although the installer will usually run fine in normal user mode, some workloads install system-level components (such as the .NET SDK, Windows SDK, IIS Express, and debugging tools) that require elevated permissions. Running as Administrator helps prevent incomplete installations or missing components. So, just to be on the safe side run it in admin mode just to be sure.
