How to use Rider on Windows

Question

Are there any prerequisites to use Rider on Windows? Is it necessary to have Visual Studio installed?

Answer

On a Windows machine Rider should work if either .NET SDK or Visual Studio* is installed.

To use JetBrains Rider on a Windows machine without Visual Studio, install the following components for the specific projects:

• Legacy project files:
  • Download and install the JetBrains redistributable of MSBuild (to learn more, visit the blog post.)
  • Download and install Microsoft .NET Framework Developer Pack 4.5.1 or later
• Web applications for classic ASP.NET or .NET Core with IIS Express: download and install IIS Express.
• .NET Core with IIS Express deployment: follow the documentation on setting up ASP.NET Core apps** in IIS Express.
• Non-SDK FSharp applications (projects with the legacy project files):
  • Add FSharp.Compiler.Tools NuGet to your project (changing TargetFrameworkVersion may be required).
  • In some cases, installing F# targets via Visual Studio or VS Build Tools may be more preferable than using this package.

IMPORTANT: Unreal Engine development on Windows is not possible without having specific tools that are distributed with Visual Studio or Visual Studio Build Tools installer. It also means that you might need a proper Visual Studio license. The necessary tools can be installed by ticking the Desktop development with the C++ option in the Visual Studio installer. Check more information about Unreal Engine development in Rider.

* NOTE: in the case of Visual Studio, installing components within it may be required (i.e. ASP.NET or F# targets).

** NOTE: this is not required for ASP.NET Core if you use the Kestrel server (one of the default options for modern ASP.NET Core apps.)