Getting Started with Desktop Development in Visual Studio

Step 1 – Install Visual Studio

Download and install Visual Studio 2022. During installation, select the .NET desktop development workload.

Step 2 – Create a New Project

1. Open Visual Studio.
2. Click File → New → Project.
3. Search for Windows Forms App (.NET) and select it.
4. Give the project a name (e.g., MyFirstApp) and click Create.

Step 3 – Design the UI

Visual Studio’s Designer lets you drag controls onto the form.

• From the Toolbox, drag a Button onto the form.
• Set its Text property to "Click Me" in the Properties window.
• Resize the form to 400 × 300 px for a clean look.

Step 4 – Add Code

Double‑click the button to generate a click‑event handler and add the following code:

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    MessageBox.Show("Hello, World!", "Welcome", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information);
}

Press F5 to run the app. You should see a message box when clicking the button.

Step 5 – Debug & Inspect

Set a breakpoint on the MessageBox.Show line, then press F5. When the breakpoint hits, use the Locals window to inspect variables.

Step 6 – Publish Your Application

1. Right‑click the project in Solution Explorer → Publish….
2. Select Folder as the target.
3. Choose a folder (e.g., bin\Release\net6.0-windows\publish) and click Finish.
4. Click Publish to generate the executable and its dependencies.

Your app is now ready for distribution.