Home and Learn: VB Net Course
Getting the Software and Creating New Projects (VB and C# Students)
The software you need is free from Microsoft and is called Visual Studio Community. You can get the software from here (opens in a new window so you can come back to this page):
Download page for Visual Studio Community Edition
You should see a page for Visual Studio 2026. Click the link to get the download. You'll be downloading to a helper file called Visual Studio Setup. Double-click the exe file to install. You'll see something like this:
In the image above, we also have the 2022 version of Visual Studio installed. We can update this version.
Install the 2026 version, though.
You may see a Workload screen where it asks you to select items to install. Make sure to select the one that says Net Desktop Development.
If you get stuck, see this page on Microsoft's site for more details about the installation.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/visualstudio/install/install-visual-studio?view=vs-2019
Once everything is downloaded and installed, you're ready to start a new project.
Create a new Project in Visual Studio
When first creating a new project in VS 2026, you may see a dark screen like this one (your subsequent screens below may also be dark):
When you create new projects, they will appear on this screen as a shortcut. Click a shortcut to open the project.
In VS 2022, your screen will look like this:
Again, any projects you create will appear on the left, under Open recent, and you can simply click on your file to open it.
Click the Create a new project option either top or bottom right.depending on your version.
On the Create a new project dialogue box. You'll see this screen:
At the top, click the dropdown list for Language. Then select the language for the course you're doing. The image below shows Visual Basic selected. If you're doing the C# course, select that option instead.
You'll then see a list of project templates. If you're doing the Visual Basic .NET course, select the option for Windows Form App (.NET Framework).
If you're doing the C# course, your first project is a console app. Select this instead. But note, there are two templates for Console Apps. One says Console App (NET Core) and the other is further down and says Console App (NET Framework). If you're working on a Windows machine, select the second one, Net Framework:
Notice the one below it, for Windows Forms App. C# students will be creating projects of these types after a look at the Console App.
Click Next, though, whichever language you're studying.
When you click Next, you'll see this screen, Configure your new project:
In the Project name box at the top, type My First Project. (It will probably say WinFormsApp1.)
You can choose a location to save your projects. We've created a folder called VB-Projects, in the Documents folder in Windows 11.
The Solution name box will get filled in for you.
You don't need to touch the Framework box, if you see one. (2026 users will see a Framework option on the next screen.) So just click the Create button.
Eventually, a new project will be created. In the next lesson, we'll explore the software itself. Including switching off the dark mode, if you hate it!
You should see a screen like the one below:
VB NET Community - new popup window (47K)
Visual Studio 2026 users will also see a flyout panel, that's not docked by default. This panel not only the Solution Explorer on it but also a Copilot Chat option.
You can now make a start on the course by clicking the link below for your course: