Setup for Mastering Azure Repos

• Windows 10 with local administrator permissions and no custom/group policies
• Latest version of Google Chrome browser with fast, reliable Internet access
• Visual Studio 2019 any edition (see below)
• Students must have a Microsoft Account (see below)

Installing Visual Studio 2019

We recommend installing Enterprise edition. The trial edition is fine.

1. Download and run the most recent version of Visual Studio. This is done automatically when you download from here: https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads.
2. Ensure the following Workloads are selected at a minimum:
   1. ASP.NET and web development (include Architecture and analysis tools)
   2. Azure development
   3. .NET desktop development
   4. Data storage and processing
3. Ensure the following Individual components are selected at a minimum:
   1. Cloud, database, and server: Data sources for SQL Server support, IIS Express, SQL Server Data Tools, SQL Server Express 2016 LocalDB
   2. Code tools: Azure DevOps Office Integration, Class Designer, Dependency Validation, Developer Analytics tools, DGML editor, Git for Windows
   3. Debugging and testing: .NET profiling tools
   4. Development activities: ASP.NET MVC 4
      
      NOTES:
      1) Some of the above individual components may already be selected based on the workloads you picked.
      2) The above workloads and components will require > 10 gb of disk space and can take several minutes to install.

Creating Microsoft Accounts

Each student must have a Microsoft Account (formerly known as a Live ID) to create and access various Microsoft services, such as Azure DevOps Services and Azure.

If a student doesn’t have a Microsoft Account or wants to create a new, “throwaway” one, they can visit https://signup.live.com and provide the required information, which includes name, username, password, and other details. They will also need to provide a phone number or other method in order to reset a forgotten password. 

Be aware that there is a daily limit to the number of Microsoft Accounts that can be created from a public IP address. Please allow enough time to create the Microsoft Accounts (or use multiple IPs).

A downside to using a throwaway Microsoft Account for training, is that it won’t be associated to a Visual Studio subscription (formerly known as an MSDN subscription). Should the student join a team using the throwaway Microsoft Account, they may have more limited capability than normal.