Visual Studio Code is an excellent IDE (integrated developer environment) that you can use to help write Python code. You can download VS code from the official website at code.visualstudio.com:

Download and install VS Code by selecting the appropriate option. Since this is a Windows course, we are clicking the Windows download button on the left. Once the download completes, run the installer with the default options and start VS Code:

Here you can configure the theme you want to use, then let's create a project folder. In VS Code, clcik File > Open Folder:

Browse to the directory where you want to save your Python files for this course, right-click and click New > Folder.

Name it whatever you think is appropriate then click Select Folder:

Next, select Yes when asked about trusting the authors:

Now we can create Python files and folders inside of this directory as desired and they will all be quickly accessible from our VS Code editor. I prefer to have a folder for each project I work on in VS code - but you are free to work any way you see fit. Having a single folder for your work in this course is a great option!

Right-click in the explorer pane and select New File. Name it test.py then press Enter.

The new file will open:

Wait for the module installation to complete. This will install the Python module by Microsoft which includes IntelliSense (autocompletion), Linting, debugging and more! If you receive a Windows Security Alert, click Allow Access:

Copy and paste the following test code into the test.py file:

print("Hello Server Academy")

Now we can execute our Python files by pressing F5. Click Python File when prompted:

Now if we look in the terminal we will see our executed code:

And that's all we need to do to get started writing Python code in Visual Studio Code!