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title: Visual C++ Documentation | Microsoft Docs
description: Learn how to use C++ to develop applications, services, and tools for your platforms and devices.
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                                    <h3>Install Visual Studio and choose your C++ workloads</h3>
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                                    <h3>Get Started with Visual Studio and C++</h3>
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                                    <h3>What’s new for C++ in Visual Studio 2017</h3>
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        <h1>Visual C++ Documentation</h1>
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                <a href="#workloads">Workloads</a>
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                                                    <h3>Universal Windows Platform development</h3>
                                                    <p>Develop apps for the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) using C++.</p>
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                                                    <h3>Windows development with C++</h3>
                                                    <p>Create classic Windows desktop applications, static libs and DLLs using
                                                        Win32, MFC, ATL, COM, and/or C++/CLI.</p>
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                                                    <h3>Linux development</h3>
                                                    <p>Create applications for various Linux distros.</p>
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                                                    <h3>Mobile development with C++</h3>
                                                    <p>Create mobile applications for iOS, Android, and UWP.</p>
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                                <a href="https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/gaming/e2e">
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                                                    <h3>Game development with C++</h3>
                                                    <p>Create games and graphics applications using DirectX, Unreal, Cocos2D, and more.</p>
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                                <a href="https://microsoft.github.io/PTVS/">
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                                                    <h3>Python</h3>
                                                    <p>Use Python Tools for Visual Studio to create Python applications that
                                                        interact with C++ programs.</p>
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                                                    <h3>Develop</h3>
                                                    <p>Write, refactor, explore and understand your code using the code editor.</p>
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                                                    <h3>Build</h3>
                                                    <p>Compile and link your code, and optimize for maximum throughput.</p>
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                                                    <h3>Debug</h3>
                                                    <p>Debug your C++ code with the Visual Studio debugger.</p>
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                                                    <h3>Test</h3>
                                                    <p>Create unit tests for your C++ code.</p>
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                                                    <h3>Deploy</h3>
                                                    <p>Distribute your finished program to end-users.</p>
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                                                    <h3>Improve Performance</h3>
                                                    <p>Identify bottlenecks and optimize code performance by using diagnostic
                                                        tools.</p>
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                                                    <h3>Porting and Upgrading</h3>
                                                    <p>Upgrade to the latest version of Visual Studio and migrate legacy apps to modern platforms.</p>
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                <a href="#langlib">Languages and Libraries</a>
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                        <a href="#langlib1">Languages and Libraries</a>
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                                                    <h3>Standard C/C++ Language and Libraries</h3>
                                                    <p>Microsoft implementation of the C/C++ programming languages and libraries.</p>
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                                                    <h3>Component Extensions</h3>
                                                    <p>Component extensions to C++:  C++/CLI for .NET programming and C++/CX for UWP programming.</p>
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                                                    <h3>Windows Desktop Libraries</h3>
                                                    <p>Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) and Active Template Library (ATL)</p>
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                                                    <h3>Parallel Programming Libraries</h3>
                                                    <p>Concrt, AMP, and OpenMP libraries for parallel programming.</p>
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                                <a href="https://github.com/Microsoft/cpprestsdk">
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                                                    <h3>Networking Libraries</h3>
                                                    <p>C++ REST SDK (code named Casablanca) open-source library for web programming.</p>
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                                <a href="/cpp/windows/windows-runtime-cpp-template-library-wrl">
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                                                    <h3>Universal Windows Platform Libraries</h3>
                                                    <p>The Windows Runtime C++ Template Library (WRL) is a template library
                                                        that provides a low-level way to author and use Windows Runtime components.</p>
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