In this chapter, you will be installing:
Visual Studio Code, one of the world's most popular free development environments.
Chrome and Firefox, the two most widely-used web browsers.
Install Visual Studio Code
The first tool you'll be installing is Visual Studio Code, or VS Code, which will be your main workhorse tool.
First, you'll need to download the installer from https://code.visualstudio.com.
On Windows:
Once the download is complete, launch the installer from where you downloaded it, and accept the User Agreement. You can go through the rest of the installation without changing the default configuration.
On macOS:
The app as you have downloaded it is ready to use. Drag it to your Applications folder to make it accessible via the Launchpad.
Open Visual Studio code to the Get Started page to ensure it has been installed correctly.
You will need to install Git on your computer if your screen looks like this.
If you do not see the Clone Git Repository option in the Start menu, follow the instructions in https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/github to install Git and create a GitHub account.
Now that VS Code is installed correctly, it's time to install your web browsers!
Install Your Browsers
An essential part of any front-end developer's toolkit is multiple browsers. Different browsers can display your sites and apps in different ways, and you'll often have to modify your code slightly for it to be compatible. To test your projects, you will need, at the very least, the two most widely used browsers: Chrome and Firefox.
Install Chrome
Head over to https://www.google.com/chrome/ and download Google Chrome for your operating system.
On Windows:
Launch the downloaded installer: the installation is completely automatic.
On macOS:
Open the downloaded file. Drag and drop the Chrome icon into the Applications folder in the Chrome window.
Install Firefox
Go to https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ and download the latest version of Firefox for your operating system.
On Windows:
Launch the downloaded installer: the installation is completely automatic.
On macOS:
Open the downloaded file. Drag and drop the Firefox icon into the Applications folder in the Firefox window.
Let's Recap!
You have now installed all of the tools you will need for this course:
Visual Studio Code
Your browsers: Chrome and Firefox
Let's start exploring them in the next chapter!
