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Install Python support in Visual Studio

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Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. 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

Note

Python support is presently available only on Visual Studio for Windows. On Mac and Linux, Python support is available through Visual Studio Code.

  1. Download and run the latest Visual Studio installer for Windows. Python support is present in the release 15.2 and later. If you have Visual Studio installed already, open Visual Studio and run the installer by selecting Tools > Get Tools and Features.

    Install Visual Studio Community

    Tip

    The Community edition is for individual developers, classroom learning, academic research, and open source development. For other uses, install Visual Studio Professional or Visual Studio Enterprise.

  2. The installer provides a list of workloads that are groups of related options for specific development areas. For Python, select the Python development workload and select Install:

    Screenshot of the Python development workload selected in the Visual Studio installer.

  3. To quickly test Python support, launch Visual Studio, press Alt+I to open the Python Interactive window, and enter 2+2. If you don't see the output of 4, recheck your steps.

Next step

Step 1: Create a Python project

See also