Rider

ApplicationJetBrains

Also called jetbrains rider, rider ide

JetBrainsProductivity

JetBrains' .NET IDE. The 64-bit Windows process is rider64.exe. It is not Visual Studio and not devenv.exe.

What you need to know

Rider is rider64.exe. Visual Studio is devenv.exe.

Rider is JetBrains' .NET IDE. Visual Studio is Microsoft's full IDE. They can open the same .sln. Uninstalling one does not remove the other. VS Code is still Code.exe.

What is it?: JetBrains .NET IDE
Same as Visual Studio?: No. devenv.exe is Microsoft
Process name?: rider64.exe

Feex says

If rider64.exe is the RAM hog, I would look at the solution and the caches inside Rider. I would not close devenv.exe to quit this IDE. Visual Studio is a different product.

What is Rider?

Rider is JetBrains' .NET IDE. It is not Visual Studio, not ReSharper-in-VS by itself, and not VS Code.

If you have never used it

If you want a JetBrains IDE for C# and .NET, that is Rider. Download it from jetbrains.com/rider/download. rider64.exe is this product. Visual Studio is devenv.exe. VS Code is Code.exe. You still need a .NET SDK. Rider does not replace the Visual Studio Installer workloads for every native C++ scenario.

What is it used for?

.NET solutions

csproj and sln in a JetBrains window. devenv.exe is Microsoft's IDE for the same files.

Unity and game projects Rider supports

What JetBrains documents. Visual Studio has its own game workloads.

Inspections in the JetBrains style

ReSharper-class analysis without hosting devenv.exe.

Who is it for?

.NET developers who prefer JetBrains
People who already pay for a JetBrains All Products pack
Anyone who clicked Visual Studio and got Rider by mistake, or the reverse

Current status

Rider (2017) is a current .net ide from JetBrains. The vendor still points Windows users at https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/download/.

How old is it?

JetBrains released Rider in 2017. It is younger than Visual Studio (1997) and younger than ReSharper. Current Windows builds ship through Toolbox or the standalone installer.

Versions

Major channels first. Exact build numbers are not all verified here.

Rider

System requirements

Values follow the publisher's public guidance. Workload still changes the real need.

Minimum

Minimum system requirements
Operating system	A current 64-bit Windows 10 or Windows 11 release, per JetBrains
RAM	JetBrains lists 4 GB minimum and 8 GB recommended for current Rider builds

Resource profile

CPU demand: Follows what you open inside the app
RAM demand: Follows documents, tabs, or libraries

Installed processes

These executables belong to this product when it is installed.

Installed processes
rider64.exe	Rider 64-bit IDE

Startup components

Rider can reopen the last solution. That is not a Windows service named Rider.

File locations

Common Rider locations
Typical install	C:\Program Files\JetBrains\Rider *\

File formats

SLNCSPROJ

Common problems

Missing .NET SDK

Rider will ask for an SDK. The Visual Studio Installer is one way to get workloads. The SDK can also come from dotnet.microsoft.com.

People hunt devenv.exe after installing Rider

rider64.exe is this article. Community Visual Studio is a different download.

Getting unstuck

Confirm rider64.exe under JetBrains\Rider

Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\...\devenv.exe is the other IDE.

Install from jetbrains.com/rider/download or Toolbox

A Rider crack is junk. JetBrains hosts the real builds.

Install a .NET SDK if Rider cannot run the project

That is an SDK problem, not a missing VS Code extension.

Alternatives

Visual Studio if your shop standardizes on devenv.exe. VS Code plus C# Dev Kit for a lighter editor. JetBrains Toolbox to keep Rider updated.

Official help and downloads

Start with the vendor. Random exe sites are not a support channel.

Official contacts
Download	www.jetbrains.com/rider/download/ Official installer or vendor page
Help	www.jetbrains.com/help/rider/ Vendor support
Official site	www.jetbrains.com/rider/ Start here, not a random exe host
Toolbox App	www.jetbrains.com/toolbox-app/ Installs and updates Rider

Related hardware

JetBrains IDEs want several GB of RAM for a real solution. An SSD helps the index.

Technical details

Vendor version numbers change. This article does not pin a build.

Sources and verification

Reviewed by Feex editorial. Last verified August 2026 Status: Feex Reviewed. How we research.

Rider official site · Vendor product page
Rider help · Vendor support
Rider documentation · Official JetBrains Rider docs
Foxhole process map · First-party samples on Windows PCs. Not a lab benchmark.

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