Overview of developing on Windows with Rust

Rust is a systems programming language designed for performance, reliability, and memory safety — without a garbage collector. It is widely used for operating systems, command-line tools, web servers, and anywhere low-level control matters.

Rust has topped Stack Overflow's annual developer survey as the most-admired language for many years running, and Microsoft is a founding member of the Rust Foundation.

Key concepts

• Cargo — Rust's package manager and build tool. You will use it for almost everything: creating projects, adding dependencies, building, and testing.
• crate — the basic unit of compilation in Rust. A crate can be a binary (executable) or a library.
• rustup — the official installer and version manager for the Rust toolchain. It keeps your compiler and tools up to date.
• crates.io — the community package registry at crates.io.

Next steps

• Set up your Rust development environment on Windows
• Rust for Windows, and the windows crate
• Rust in Visual Studio Code