A Complete Guide - .NET Environment Setup

Step 3: Install an Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

An IDE is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. The most popular IDE for .NET is Visual Studio.

Installing Visual Studio

Step 4: Create Your First .NET Application

Now that you have the .NET SDK and an IDE installed, let's create a simple console application.

Using Visual Studio:

1. Create a New Project:

   • Open Visual Studio.
   • Click on "Create a new project."
   • Select "Console App (.NET Core)" or "Console App (.NET Framework)" and click "Next."
   • Enter a project name and location, and click "Create."

2. Write the Code:

   • The default code in Program.cs is already a basic "Hello, World!" application.
   • Here is how it looks:

     using System; namespace HelloWorld
     { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Console.WriteLine("Hello World!"); } }
     }
     

3. Run the Application:

   • Click on the "Start" button (or press F5) to run the application.
   • A command prompt window should display "Hello World!"

Using Visual Studio Code:

1. Create a New Project:

   • Open a Command Prompt.
   • Navigate to the directory where you want to create the project.
   • Run the following command to create a new console application:

     dotnet new console -o HelloWorld
     

   • Navigate into the project directory:

     cd HelloWorld
     

   • Open Visual Studio Code by running the following command:

     code .
     

2. Write the Code:

   • The default code in Program.cs is already a basic "Hello, World!" application.
   • Here is how it looks:

     using System; class Program
     { static void Main(string[] args) { Console.WriteLine("Hello World!"); }
     }
     

3. Run the Application:

   • Open a terminal in Visual Studio Code (Ctrl+).
   • Run the following command to build and run the application:

     dotnet run
     

   • The terminal should display "Hello World!"

Step 5: Clean Up

If you want to completely remove .NET SDK and Visual Studio from your system (or any other installed components), follow these steps:

Uninstalling the .NET SDK:

• Go to "Control Panel" > "Programs" > "Programs and Features."
• Find ".NET SDK xx.x.x" in the list, select it, and click "Uninstall."

Uninstalling Visual Studio:

• Go to "Control Panel" > "Programs" > "Programs and Features."
• Find "Microsoft Visual Studio" in the list, select it, and click "Uninstall."

Uninstalling Visual Studio Code:

• Go to "Control Panel" > "Programs" > "Programs and Features."
• Find "Visual Studio Code" in the list, select it, and click "Uninstall."

Conclusion