Visual Studio for Flutter: Windows desktop apps

To build Windows desktop programs with Flutter, you need Visual Studio with the Desktop development with C++ workload. You don't need it to run in a browser or on Android — only for Windows programs, and only on a Windows computer.

Visual Studio is a separate IDE — don't confuse it with Visual Studio Code: VS Code stays your Flutter editor, while Visual Studio provides the C++ compiler Flutter uses to build the program.

Contents:

1. Installing Visual Studio
2. If Visual Studio is already installed
3. Checking: flutter doctor
4. Running and building
5. The “Building with plugins requires symlink support” error
6. Summary

1. Installing Visual Studio

1. Download Visual Studio Community from visualstudio.microsoft.com — it is free: any individual developer can use it to make their own free or paid apps (Microsoft has limits for companies — they are on the same page). Community doesn't require you to sign in to a Microsoft account.
2. Run the installer. When it asks you to choose workloads, check Desktop development with C++ .
3. The components Flutter needs are selected in this workload by default — keep them.

Flutter 3.47 works with Visual Studio 2019 and later.

2. If Visual Studio is already installed

You can add the workload to an existing Visual Studio:

1. Find Visual Studio Installer in the Start menu (or, in Visual Studio itself, Tools → Get Tools and Features ).
2. Click Modify next to the installation.
3. On the Workloads tab, check Desktop development with C++ and click Modify again.

The Flutter documentation also recommends updating Visual Studio to the latest version.

3. Checking: flutter doctor

The commands on this page run in PowerShell (how to open it and paste a command is on the Installing Git page):

flutter doctor

The Visual Studio - develop Windows apps section should have a checkmark. If doctor says “Visual Studio not installed; this is necessary to develop Windows apps.”, Visual Studio is missing; if it says “Visual Studio is missing necessary components”, open the Visual Studio Installer → Modify and check the Desktop development with C++ workload with its default components (section 2).

Another check is the device list:

flutter devices

It should include a line with the windows platform.

4. Running and building

Run the project as a Windows program — in the project folder (we create the first project in Lesson 1 ); press q to stop it:

flutter run -d windows

Build the finished program:

flutter build windows

The .exe appears in your project's build\windows\x64\runner\Release\ folder (on an ARM computer — build\windows\arm64\runner\Release\ ). You can build a Windows program only on Windows.

5. The “Building with plugins requires symlink support” error

If the project has plugins, the build may stop with:

Building with plugins requires symlink support.

Please enable Developer Mode in your system settings. Run
  start ms-settings:developers
to open settings.

Flutter asks you to turn on Windows Developer Mode . Run the command from the message — it opens the right settings:

start ms-settings:developers

Turn on Developer Mode and run the build again.

6. Summary

• Windows programs need Visual Studio (not VS Code) with the Desktop development with C++ workload.
• Check with flutter doctor (the Visual Studio section) and flutter devices (the windows line).
• flutter run -d windows runs, flutter build windows builds the program into build\windows\x64\runner\Release\ .

Installing Flutter itself is in Lesson 0 . Running on Android — Setting up Android for Flutter .