The ERROR_INVALID_PIP problem was easy to solve; I just googled it and the first hit was to delete a couple of folders in the \Espressif\tools folder (or wherever you chose to install), idf-git and idf-python, then re-ran the installation routine and the Configure ESP-IDF Extension; all was fine after that and the blink routine works correctly, although I can see it will take me a while to get my head around all that is involved using Visual Studio Code 🙁

The link is esp32.com/viewtopic.php?t=23976

For anybody (like me) who wants confirmation that installing Visual Studio Code on a PC running Visual Studio Community Edition, I can say that the two installations, on a Windows 11 computer, worked as hoped for. I could run a Visual Studio program whilst I had Code running at the same time.

I ran into another problem when configuring the Extension (ERROR_INVALID_PIP) but as this looks to be a python problem, will be exploring this in another forum.

They do not interfere, because they are two completely different things.

Okay, I will give it a try a bit later and report the result. Fingers crossed!

Hi.
Those are two completely different softwares.
One shouldn’t interfere with the other.

Regards,
Sara

I am am using Visual Studio (Community Edition) which is also free, and I need to use that for other projects I am involved in. Is it possible to run the two options on the same computer? By that I mean if i download and install Visual Studio Code will it interfere with Visual Studio and vice versa?

Hi.

It is not necessary to make any extra steps for the plugin to show up.
It is in the extensions repository.

Are you using Visual Studio instead of Visual Studio Code?
You need Visual Studio Code which is different from Visual Studio.

Visual Studio Code is free.

Regards,
Sara