# Introduction to SDL with Visual Studio

The easiest way to use SDL is to include it as a subproject in your project.

We'll start by creating a simple project to build and run [hello.c](hello.c)

- Get a copy of the SDL source, you can clone the repo, or download the "Source Code" asset from [the latest release.](https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/releases/latest)
  - If you've downloaded a release, make sure to extract the contents somewhere you can find it.
- Create a new project in Visual Studio, using the C++ Empty Project template
- Add hello.c to the Source Files
- Right click the solution, select add an existing project, navigate to `VisualC/SDL` from within the source you cloned or downloaded above and add SDL.vcxproj
- Select your main project and go to Project -> Add -> Reference and select SDL3
- Select your main project and go to Project -> Properties, set the filter at the top to "All Configurations" and "All Platforms", select C/C++ -> General and add the SDL include directory to "Additional Include Directories"
- Build and run!