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Applies to: 
Visual Studio 
Visual 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
In this short introduction to the Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE), you'll create a simple C# application that has a Windows-based user interface (UI).
If you haven't already installed Visual Studio, go to the Visual Studio downloads page to install it for free.
Create a project
First, you'll create a C# application project. The project type comes with all the template files you'll need, before you've even added anything.
Open Visual Studio 2017.
From the top menu bar, choose File > New > Project.
In the New Project dialog box in the left pane, expand Visual C#, and then choose Windows Desktop. In the middle pane, choose Windows Forms App (.NET Framework). Then name the file
HelloWorld.If you don't see the Windows Forms App (.NET Framework) project template, cancel out of the New Project dialog box and from the top menu bar, choose Tools > Get Tools and Features. The Visual Studio Installer launches. Choose the .NET desktop development workload, then choose Modify.
Create the application
After you select your C# project template and name your file, Visual Studio opens a form for you. A form is a Windows user interface. We'll create a "Hello World" application by adding controls to the form, and then we'll run the app.
Add a button to the form
Choose Toolbox to open the Toolbox fly-out window.
(If you don't see the Toolbox fly-out option, you can open it from the menu bar. To do so, View > Toolbox. Or, press Ctrl+Alt+X.)
Choose the Pin icon to dock the Toolbox window.
Choose the Button control and then drag it onto the form.
In the Properties window, locate Text, change the name from Button1 to
Click this, and then press Enter.
(If you don't see the Properties window, you can open it from the menu bar. To do so, choose View > Properties Window. Or, press F4.)
In the Design section of the Properties window, change the name from Button1 to
btnClickThis, and then press Enter.
Note
If you've alphabetized the list in the Properties window, Button1 appears in the (DataBindings) section, instead.
Add a label to the form
Now that we've added a button control to create an action, let's add a label control to send text to.
Select the Label control from the Toolbox window, and then drag it onto the form and drop it beneath the Click this button.
In either the Design section or the (DataBindings) section of the Properties window, change the name of Label1 to
lblHelloWorld, and then press Enter.
Add code to the form
In the Form1.cs [Design] window, double-click the Click this button to open the Form1.cs window.
(Alternatively, you can expand Form1.cs in Solution Explorer, and then choose Form1.)
In the Form1.cs window, after the private void line, type or enter
lblHelloWorld.Text = "Hello World!";as shown in the following screenshot:
Run the application
Choose the Start button to run the application.
Several things will happen. In the Visual Studio IDE, the Diagnostics Tools window will open, and an Output window will open, too. But outside of the IDE, a Form1 dialog box appears. It will include your Click this button and text that says Label1.
Choose the Click this button in the Form1 dialog box. Notice that the Label1 text changes to Hello World!.
Close the Form1 dialog box to stop running the app.
Next steps
To learn more, continue with the following tutorial: