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Installing Xamarin

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How to set up Visual Studio and Xamarin to start building mobile apps with .NET.

Installing Xamarin on Windows

Step-by-step instructions

Xamarin can be installed as part of a new Visual Studio 2019 installation, with the following steps:

  1. Download Visual Studio 2019 Community, Visual Studio Professional, or Visual Studio Enterprise from the Visual Studio page (download links are provided at the bottom).

  2. Double-click the downloaded package to start installation.

  3. Select the Mobile development with .NET workload from the installation screen:

    Mobile development with .NET selection

  4. When you are ready to begin Visual Studio 2019 installation, click the Install button in the lower right-hand corner:

    Install button

    Use the progress bars to monitor the installation:

    Progress bars during installation

  5. When Visual Studio 2019 installation has completed, click the Launch button to start Visual Studio:

    Location of Launch button

Adding Xamarin to Visual Studio 2019

If Visual Studio 2019 is already installed, add Xamarin by re-running the Visual Studio 2019 installer to modify workloads (see Modify Visual Studio for details). Next, follow the steps listed above to install Xamarin.

For more information about downloading and installing Visual Studio 2019, see Install Visual Studio 2019.

Installing Xamarin on Windows

Step-by-step instructions

Xamarin can be installed as part of a new Visual Studio 2017 installation, with the following steps:

  1. Download Visual Studio 2017 Community, Visual Studio Professional, or Visual Studio Enterprise from the Visual Studio page (download links are provided at the bottom).

  2. Double-click the downloaded package to start installation.

  3. Select the Mobile development with .NET workload from the installation screen:

    Mobile development with .NET selection on the Workloads screen

  4. While Mobile development with .NET is selected, have a look at the Installation details panel on the right. Here, you can deselect mobile development options that you do not want to install.

    Installation details panel, listing Xamarin options to install

  5. When you are ready to begin Visual Studio 2017 installation, click the Install button in the lower right-hand corner:

    Install button

    Depending on which edition of Visual Studio 2017 you are installing, the installation process can take a long time to complete. You can use the progress bars to monitor the installation:

    Progress bars during installation

  6. When Visual Studio 2017 installation has completed, click the Launch button to start Visual Studio:

    Location of Launch button

Adding Xamarin to Visual Studio 2017

If Visual Studio 2017 is already installed, add Xamarin by re-running the Visual Studio 2017 installer to modify workloads (see Modify Visual Studio for details). Next, follow the steps listed above to install Xamarin.

For more information about downloading and installing Visual Studio 2017, see Install Visual Studio 2017.

Installing Xamarin on macOS

Step-by-step instructions

In addition to this video, there is a step-by-step installation guide that covers Visual Studio for Mac and Xamarin.