Visual Studio and Visual Basic

DPA 5 Reputation points

Hi.  I would like to write Visual Basic programs in Visual Studio.

I have read documentation on .NET, Visual Basic and Visual Studio.  I am confused.

Questions?  What is the relationship between Visual Basic and Visual Studio?  When the free, Community version of Visual Studio is downloaded, is Visual Basic included?  Or does Visual Basic have to be purchased and installed separately?

Thanks.

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3 answers

  1. Leon Tran (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 1,990 Reputation points • Microsoft External Staff • Moderator

    Hi @DPA ,

    Thank you for reaching out, and I hope you were able to install Visual Studio 2026 successfully.

    I understand how this can be confusing when you're just getting started. Visual Studio is the development environment used to build applications, while Visual Basic is one of the programming languages you can use within Visual Studio to create those applications.

    Both Visual Studio 2026 Community edition and Visual Basic are free for personal use, so there’s no need to purchase a license. During installation, please make sure to select the .NET desktop development workload. If this is not selected, the Visual Basic project templates will not be available.

    👁 User's image

    If you need any further assistance, please feel free to leave a comment. I’ll be happy to help. If my answer was helpful, you can follow this guidance to provide some feedback. This also help another find the solution easier. 

    I look forward to hearing from you soon. 

    1. DPA 5 Reputation points

      Thanks for the information. I will download/install the free, Community version of Visual Studio and go from there. FYI.

    2. DPA 5 Reputation points

      Welcome. Thanks for the reply. Yes. AI answered my question too as you can see below. Also, I will try to remember your helpful hint during installation. FYI.

    3. Leon Tran (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 1,990 Reputation points • Microsoft External Staff • Moderator

      Hi @DPA ,

      Thanks for your feedback.

      If any part of my explanation helped address your question, I would greatly appreciate it if you could follow the instructions here. This can help other community members facing similar scenarios.

    4. DPA 5 Reputation points

      Welcome.

      I tried two different times to click on "here". The error message twice said, "Bad request. Return home.". FYI.

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  2. Bruce (SqlWork.com) 84,086 Reputation points

    The original Visual Basic was an integrated environment with an IDE. since vb.net (.net framework) its a separate language and a separate IDE. the current .net sdk is free to use. it includes the languages C#, F# and Visual Basic. you can download from here:

    https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download

    while you use any text editor and the .net cli to build and run applications, most devs want an ide. there are two common free ide

    • Visual Studio Community. It is free if you meet the license requirements. (home use, small company, education or open source project). https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/community/
    • Visual Studio Code. While the editor is free, the .net debugger extension has the same license rules as Visual Studio Community
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  3. AI answer

    Visual Basic is a programming language; Visual Studio is the integrated development environment (IDE) used to write, build, debug, test, and deploy applications in languages such as Visual Basic, C#, and others.

    Visual Studio provides the tools around the language: code editor, designers, compilers, debuggers, source control integration, and project templates. Visual Basic itself (the compiler, language services, templates) is delivered as part of Visual Studio via workloads, not as a separate paid product in this scenario.

    When the free Visual Studio Community edition is downloaded and installed, Visual Basic support is available at no extra cost. During installation, select the .NET desktop development workload so that Visual Basic project templates (such as console apps and Windows Forms apps) and the necessary tooling are installed.

    Visual Basic does not need to be purchased or installed separately when using Visual Studio Community; everything needed to write Visual Basic apps is included once the appropriate workload is chosen.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.
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