Visual Studio Community 2013: How to Install and Set Up

Introduction

If you're closely following the Connect(); developer event by Microsoft over the last couple of days, then you must have heard that Microsoft has announced the availability of a fully featured version of Visual Studio edition for free. Yes, Microsoft is going big time open source with the complete .Net Framework and announced Visual Studio Community 2013, a fully-featured IDE for free. It is a fully featured version of Visual Studio and supports any extension from the Visual Studio Gallery. There are no restrictions on it and you can use it for developing any type of application, except you can't use it for an enterprise or large teams of more than 5 people. It mainly focuses on individual developers, students, hobbyists, open source contributors and small development teams (max 5 users).

Scott Guthrie announced this news in the Connect(); event with the tagline, “It's the best time to be a developer”. Today, and onwards, if you are in any of the above categories then there is no need to use the feature-limited Express Editions of Visual Studio or to purchase a fully functional Visual Studio. Just install the Visual Studio Community 2013 and unleash the full power of Visual Studio to build solutions. In this article, I'm providing you with a step-by-step guide to the installation of Visual Studio Community 2013.

Prerequisites

The following system requirements are required to install Visual Studio Community 2013 into your system.

Operation System:

• Windows 8.1, 8 and Windows 7 SP1

Hardware Requirements:

• 1.6 GHz or faster processor
• 1 GB of RAM
• 20 GB of free hard disk space
• 5400 RPM hard disk drive
• DirectX 9-Capable Video card with 1024x768 of minimum resolution

Getting Started

To install the Visual Studio Community 2013, you need to use the following procedure to complete the installation. I'm using Windows 8 for the installation, but it holds true for the operating systems mentioned in the prerequisites.

Step 1

Click on the following URL [Visual Studio Community 2013] and you will be shown the following screen.



Step 2

Click on the Download button and an installer file will start downloading to your system.



Step 3

After the file is completely downloaded on your system, click on the file and run the setup. An important point to note here is Visual Studio demands a minimum of 9 GB space to be available somewhere in all your partitions. Please ensure this requirement to continue with the installation.



Check the “I agree” checkbox and you'll be shown the Next button on the bottom-right of the wizard. Click it to proceed.

Step 4

Choose from the following options to install the specific or complete features. It is a best practice to install all the features, still you can choose depending on your requirements and click Install.



Step 5

The installation process takes some time to download the useful resources and other files from the internet to complete the installation depending upon the speed of your internet connection. During my installation, it took just 1 hour to complete the installation.



Step 6

After the setup is finished installing Visual Studio Community 2013 on your machine, it shows the following window. Click on “Launch” to launch Visual Studio.



Step 7

The Welcome screen prompts you to sign in with your Microsoft Account for the first time.



Step 8

Click on "Sign in" and you'll be prompted to enter your login credentials.



Step 9

Log in with your Microsoft credentials and click Sign in. You'll be prompted to create a Visual Studio Online account. You can either choose to create one or skip it by clicking the “Not now, maybe later”.



Step 10

Afterwards, you'll be prompted to choose your environment settings. If you're a C# programmer, choose Visual C# as your Development settings. You can also choose your color theme from one of three options.



Step 11

When you're done with your development settings, click Start Visual Studio and voila, you are ready to play with the fully functional Visual Studio Community 2013 for free.



Conclusion

I hope this article helps you to install Visual Studio Community 2013 step-by-step. Your feedback and constructive criticism is always appreciated, keep it coming. Until then, try to put a ding in the universe!