Installing Visual Studio Code — Complete Guide

Installing Visual Studio Code — Complete Guide: free step-by-step lesson with examples, common mistakes, and interview tips — part of ASP.NET Core MVC Tutorial on Toolliyo Academy.

8 min read Updated 8/9/2026

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ASP.NET Core MVC Tutorial · Lesson 10 of 200

Installing Visual Studio Code

Getting Started → Core MVC → Data & Security → Production → Career

Beginner · 1 — Getting Started · ~6 min · Section 1: Introduction & Environment Setup

What is this?

You need the .NET SDK (command-line tools and runtime) to build MVC apps. Visual Studio or VS Code adds an editor, debugger, and templates — optional but helpful.

Why should you care?

Without the SDK, dotnet new mvc will not work. A good editor saves hours when stepping through controllers line by line.

See it live — copy this example

Create an MVC project (dotnet new mvc), add the code, and run dotnet run.

# Install SDK from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download (LTS)
dotnet --version

# Create and run first project
dotnet new mvc -n ShopNest.Mvc
cd ShopNest.Mvc
dotnet run

Run Example »

This lesson uses terminal or setup steps. Run commands on your computer — the live editor appears on coding lessons.

What happened?

dotnet --version should show 8.x or 9.x LTS.
dotnet new lists templates including mvc.
dotnet run compiles and starts Kestrel with a localhost URL.

Try it yourself

Download and install .NET SDK LTS.
Open terminal, run dotnet --version.
Install VS Code + C# Dev Kit OR Visual Studio Community.
Change text or labels in the example and run again — watch the browser update.
Break the code on purpose (remove a semicolon), read the error message, then fix it.

Remember

SDK is required; IDE is strongly recommended. dotnet CLI creates and runs projects. LTS versions are safest for learning and production.

Interview prep for this lesson

Practice these questions aloud after reading—each links to a full structured answer.

Mid PDF Detailed

Publish the app via Visual Studio, CLI, or GitHub Actions.?

Short answer: dotnet publish -c Release Real-world example (ShopNest) ShopNest admin screens use MVC: controller loads data, Razor view renders HTML, Tag Helpers build forms safely. Say this in the interview Define — one…

Mid PDF Detailed

Access in code: builder.Configuration["ConnectionStrings:Default"]; ✅ Stored securely under your user profile (not in the project folder). 🌍 5. How do you use environment variables?

Short answer: Environment variables are great for overriding settings at deployment time (especially in Docker or Azure). Example: set ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production set ConnectionStrings__Default="Server=mydb;Da…

Junior PDF Detailed

What is ASP.NET Core, and how is it different from ASP.NET MVC 5?

Short answer: ASP.NET Core is a cross-platform, open-source framework for building modern web applications, APIs, and microservices. Explain a bit more It’s a complete rewrite of the old ASP.NET framework, designed to be…

Mid PDF Detailed

Run Redis (e.g., Docker: docker run -p 6379:6379 redis).?

Short answer: Install package: dotnet add package Microsoft.Extensions.Caching.StackExchangeRedis Real-world example (ShopNest) ShopNest admin screens use MVC: controller loads data, Razor view renders HTML, Tag Helpers…

Mid PDF Detailed

How do you implement caching in ASP.NET Core?

Short answer: Caching improves performance by storing frequently used data in memory or external storage to reduce database or API calls. SP.NET Core provides: Real-world example (ShopNest) ShopNest admin screens use MVC…

All course Q&A Practice exams

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