Getting Started with Visual C# and Visual Basic

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

Whether you are new to Visual C# or Microsoft Visual Basic, this is the place to start. Getting Started Help is a series of sequential lessons that introduces you to Visual C# and Visual Basic. Have fun, and write some great software.

To learn about Visual C++, see Visual C++ resources.

In This Section

Walkthrough: Create a Simple Application Identify the basic windows in the Visual Studio IDE, optimize your development experience by configuring a setting, and then build a simple program.

Tutorial 1: Create a Picture Viewer Build a program that loads a picture from a file and displays it in a window. Learn how to drag controls like buttons and picture boxes on your form, set their properties, and use containers to smoothly resize the form. Get started writing code.

Tutorial 2: Create a Timed Math Quiz Build a timed math quiz game, where the player must answer four random arithmetic problems within a specified time. Learn how to generate random numbers using the Random class, trigger events using a Timer control, control program flow using if else statements, and perform basic arithmetic operations.

Tutorial 3: Create a Matching Game Build a matching game, where the player must match pairs of hidden icons. Learn how to hold objects using a List object, use a foreach loop, keep track of a form's state using reference variables, build an event handler that you can use with multiple objects, and make a timer fire exactly once when started.