7  Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a popular text editor with many useful extensions to make programming easier.

  • Go to the Visual Studio Code download page and download the installer for your operating system.
  • Double-click the downloaded file to install the software, accepting all the default options.
  • After completing the installation, search for “Visual Studio Code” and launch the application.
  • Go to “File > Preferences > Settings”, then select “Text Editor > Files” on the drop-down menu on the left. Scroll down to the section named “EOL” and choose “\n” (this will ensure that the files you edit on Windows are compatible with the Linux operating system).
  • Assuming you have set WSL2 (instructions): press Ctrl + Shift + P. Search for “Terminal: Select Default Profile” and click. Then click on either “WSL Ubuntu” or “bash”.
  • You can now close VS Code.
  • Determine the type of processor on your Mac. On the top-left of your toolbar click “ apple” > “About this Mac”.
    • If you see “Intel” on your processor/chip information, then you have an Intel processor.
    • If you see “M[1,2,3,4]”, then you have an M-series chip.
  • Go to the Visual Studio Code download page and download the correct installer based on the previous step.
  • Follow the installation instructions on the VS Code documentation page
  • Open a terminal and run the command uname -m. This will help you determine the installer you should download in the next step:
    • x86_64 = “x64”
    • aarch64 or arm64 = “ARM64”
    • armv7l or armhf = “ARM32”
  • Go to the Visual Studio Code download page and download the correct installer based on the previous step.
  • Install the software using your usual package manager.