Complete Guide to Installing Python in Visual Studio 2022

Visual Studio 2022 is the newest integrated development environment (IDE) of Microsoft, which presents powerful support for developing Python. Never mind if you are a beginner developer or an experienced one, with this comprehensive tutorial, you are not alone in installing the process of Python in Visual Studio 2022 and, besides that, important information about choosing an appropriate license is at your disposal.

Visual Studio 2022 different versions and license review

Before beginning the installation process of Python, finding out about different versions of Visual Studio 2022 is an important step:

Community version: this version is free for individual developers, students and small teams.
Professional version: this version is appropriate for professional developers and needs a license key for Visual Studio 2022.
Enterprise version: this version is premium and needs a license key for Visual Studio 2022 and is suitable for big teams and organizations.

If you are learning Python programming, the community version is suitable for you, while professional and enterprise versions are suitable for commercial uses because they have additional features.

Prerequisites for installing Python in Visual Studio:

Like other software, there are some prerequisites for installing Python, which should be ready on your system:

Visual Studio 2022 must be installed on your system.
Active internet connection is necessary.
Login to your computer as an administrator.
Sufficient disk space is required (at least 2 Gigabytes).

Step-by-step process of installing Python

First step is running Visual Studio 2022 installer:

Open Visual Studio 2022.
Click on Tools in the menu.
Choose Get Tools and Features.

Modifying your installation is the second step:

In the Visual Studio 2022 installer, click on Modify.
Wait until the workload is loaded.

Choose workload of Python developer as third step:

Scroll on the workload list.
Find Python development and choose it.
Check optional components in the right panel.
Recommended components:
1. Web support for python.
2. Python native development tools.
3. Python profiling tools.

Installing chosen components is 4th step:

Click on Modify in the right corner.
Wait until installation is completed.
This process may last 10 to 30 minutes based on your internet connection speed.

Installation confirmation is last step:

Good job you are at the last step. Nothing more is left to do just:

Run Visual Studio 2022.
Create a new project.
Choose Python between project types.
Choose a Python Application.
If you see these choices, congratulations! Your installation process has been done successfully.

Python configuration in Visual Studio 2022

After the installation process, follow these 2 steps to configure your python environment:

Choose a Python interpreter. To do so you should do as follow:

Go to Tools > Python > Python Environments.
Choose your desired Python version.
Set it as your default interpreter.

Installing additional python packages

Open the Python Environments window.
Choose your interpreter.
Click on Open in PowerShell.
Use pip to install the required packages.

Resolve common problems of the installation process

In this section we speak about common problems which you may face during the installation process. 3 most important problems you may experience are as follow:

Installation failure

To resolve this problem, you must install Visual Studio 2022 as an administrator.
Permanently clean files and restart your system.
Check your internet connection.

Not recognizing Python

Make sure python is installed on your system.
Add python to your system PATH.
Restart Visual Studio 2022.

License key problems

On some occasions you may face license key problems. In these situations, first make sure you activated Visual Studio 2022 with a valid license key. If this option does not work, to resolve the activation problem, call the Microsoft support team. If none of them worked, and still you have problems with your license, consider using the community version.

Best methods for developing Python in Visual Studio 2022

To exploit your environment better, you can do the following:

Use of virtual environment:

For different projects, create separate environments.
Manage dependencies efficiently.
Prevent version collision.

Configure code analysis:

Activate Pylint.
Set code formatting rules.
Use type-checking tools.

Conclusion

Installing python in Visual Studio 2022 by following this tutorial is very easy. Either you are using the community version of Visual Studio 2022 or you are using versions which need a license key, you can access powerful python development tools. Take care to keep both Visual Studio 2022 and Python up to date to have the best experience of them.