Visual Micro is a 100% compatible Arduino programming tool for Visual Studio.
The VISUAL STUDIO Arduino programming plugin is based on the operational procedures of the Arduino IDE and follows the rules applied by the Processing IDE for Arduino. This allows you to load a standard Arduino sketch into the Visual Studio environment without having to make changes to the sketch or .pde/.ino files.
If you do not have a copy of Visual Studio Professional then follow the link lower down on this page to read about a free Microsoft offer.
The Arduino IDE programming plugin is designed for users who have a working Visual Studio and Arduino IDE installations. It is best used by people whom already understand how to use the Arduino IDE.
The plugin automatically configures Visual Studio based upon the version of the Arduino IDE. This means seemless compatibility between Arduino 1.0.x and earlier.
Both Visual Studio and the plugin are very easy to install and do not require any technical expertise.
The standard Visual Studio "Build" options will build/compile for Arduino for either a single Arduino project or all Arduino projects in the current current solution.
The standard Visual Studio "Debug" options will upload (but not debug). "Start with or without" debugging will upload for the selected port and board. On the tools menu you can also override the serial upload and use a programmer instead.
To recap, all of the Visual Studio "build/debug" tool bar buttons, "build" menu items, "debug" menu items, right click context project menu and keyboard shortcuts provide compile and upload for Arduino. For an example then press F5
If you have multiple arduino projects in a single solution you can right mouse menu on a project name to "Set As Startup Project". This governs which project is uploaded when clicking F5 or any of the standard "Start" commands in Visual Studio. The current start up project will be shown in bold in the Visual Studio solution explorer.
All of the above Visual Studio commands will automatically work with Arduino when an Arduino sketch is open. These commands work in the same way for all types of Visuaol Studio applications. The commands are described in more detail in the Microsoft Visual Studio help.
Many code errors will be shown as you type or when you view your source code however some will become more obvious when you try to compile. When you compile you will see a status in the "Sketch Builder" output pane. Errors will also appear in the output pane.
You can drill down to the relevent source code of any errors by double clicking the respective line in the "Sketch Builder" output.
More that one Serial Monitor can be view at one time. Simply select the port from the toolbar drop down menu, click on the Serial Monitor icon next to the toolbar. Now place the Monitor window where you want. Repeat this action for more Serial Monitor windows.
Each project is setup with a unique board. Select the board of choice from the toolbar and save that project.
If you use the free Express version of Visual Studio or would like to create an arduino win32 simulator then the following page might be of interest Visual Studio VSPde. I found it very useful when designing the first version of the Visual Studio addin.