The Visual Studio CMake integration even allows you to use another compiler by opening the directory containing your CMakeLists.txt files and let VS do the rest. Out of the box, Visual Studio can open any folder of code and be configured to build using CMake, a cross-platform build system. In the following examples, we will show how to create an MFC app, so this optional component was installed.Īfter installing the C++ desktop workload, you can begin coding in existing projects or you can create new ones. Notable optional tools include support for MFC and C++/CLI development. The core C++ compiler and libraries for building desktop applications that target x86 and 圆4 systems are included in the VC++ 2017 v141 toolset (x86, 圆4). When you install the C++ Windows desktop workload, you have many options to customize the installation by selecting your desired tools, Windows SDKs, and other additional features like recent ISO C++ standards candidates such modules support for the STL. This modern API later evolved into the UWP platform for Windows 10, but traditional desktop development using Windows APIs is still fully supported on all versions of Windows.

The Win32 API model used in these types of applications is the development model used in Windows versions prior to the introduction of the modern Windows API that began with Windows 8. We need to install the “Desktop development with C++” workload, which provides the tools needed for developing Windows desktop applications that can run on Windows. For information on developing Universal Windows Platform apps, check out this post.Īfter installing Visual Studio, open the Visual Studio Installer from the Start menu and navigate to the Workloads Page. In this post we will dive into the “Desktop development with C++” workload inside Visual Studio and go over the workflow used to develop a desktop app. Developing for Windows desktop allows you to reach the highest number of users on any non-mobile development platform. Popular desktop applications like Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, and Google Chrome all are built using the same Win32 APIs that serve as the foundation for Windows desktop development. With C++ and Visual Studio, you use Windows SDKs to target many versions of Windows ranging from Windows XP to Windows 10, which is well over a billion devices. The Windows desktop platform has long been the most popular platform among C++ application developers.

Create a windows application