What you need for this book

You need a good spec machine with any version of Windows from Window 7 to Windows 10 installed on it.

Visual Studio 2015 is the development environment that you require for this book, and all features required for this book are available from the free Community edition (https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/visual-studio-community-vs.aspx).

Azure SDK for Visual Studio 2015 is required, and you can download it at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/.

You will sign up for a Microsoft Azure subscription at the start of the book if you have not already got one: there are various paid options, but a one-month trial is available.

There is also the Visual Studio Dev Essentials initiative (https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/visual-studio-dev-essentials-vs.aspx), which gives us access to many benefits, such as an Azure subscription with $25 prepaid monthly credit.