Anaconda and Visual Studio Code

1. Download and install Anaconda3:

• Download Anaconda from the following link (around 600 MB):

https://www.anaconda.com/products/individual

Please check the OS and the version you are downloading (64 Bit or 32 Bit). Here, I am
assuming that everyone has Windows 64-Bit

The latest version of Anaconda comes with Python 3.9

• Find the downloaded .exe file and double click to start installation

• Click Next > I Agree (I am pretty sure you won’t read the License Agreement ) > Select
Just Me and press Next > Keep the default path and press Next > Check only the
“Register Anaconda3 as my default Python 3.9” checkbox and press Install > Wait till the
installation completes > Press Next > Press Next again > Uncheck the checkboxes and
press Finish (No need of tutorial because I am here )

2. Check Anaconda installation:

• Go to Start > Search for Anaconda3 > Click on the dropdown > Select Anaconda
Promt (Anaconda3)

• Type conda -V and press enter to check the version of Anaconda. I have conda 4.12.0

• Type conda list and press enter to check all the packages installed in the base conda
environment (I will tell you what an environment is in class )

• Type exit and press enter to exit the terminal

3. Download and install Visual Studio Code:

• Download Visual Studio Code from the following link:

https://code.visualstudio.com/
 Just press Download for Windows and the download should start. You should get the
latest September 2022 version 1.72

• Navigate to the downloaded file and double click to start installation

• Steps:
Select I accept the agreement and press Next (Inquisitive souls can go ahead and
read the agreement ) > Keep the default directory and press Next > Keep the
default name for the directory and press Next > You can additionally choose to create
a Desktop icon for faster access, leave the rest unchanged and press Next > Press
Install > Uncheck “Launch VS Code” and press Finish (You might get an error if you
don’t uncheck as you need Administrator permissions to launch VS Code)

4. Launch and Setup Visual Studio Code:

• Visual Studio Code is by default just a text editor. We need to install some extensions
to make it an IDE (Integrated Development Environment)

• Go to Extensions (left corner) and install the following extensions. You must install
each extension one at a time and each time the VS Code might reload.

o Python
o Pylance
o Jupyter, Jupyter Cell Tags, Jupyter Keymap, Jupyter Slide Show and Jupyter
Notebook Renderers
o Optional: Themes like Dracula Official, Font Switcher, TODO Highlight, vscode-
icons

• All Python files have the extension .py and notebooks have the extension .ipynb
You can create dummy testing files and run some Python codes. We will of course do
this in class before we begin our course