C programming in Visual Studio

Solution 1:

Short answer: Yes, you need to rename .cpp files to c, so you can write C: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb384838.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

From the link above:

By default, the Visual C++ compiler treats all files that end in .c as C source code, and all files that end in .cpp as C++ source code. To force the compiler to treat all files as C regardless of file name extension, use the /Tc compiler option.

That being said, I do not recommend learning C language in Visual Studio, why VS? It does have lots of features you are not going to use while learning C

Solution 2:

Yes, you very well can learn C using Visual Studio.

Visual Studio comes with its own C compiler, which is actually the C++ compiler. Just use the .c file extension to save your source code.

You don't have to be using the IDE to compile C. You can write the source in Notepad, and compile it in command line using Developer Command Prompt which comes with Visual Studio.

Open the Developer Command Prompt, enter the directory you are working in, use the cl command to compile your C code.

For example, cl helloworld.c compiles a file named helloworld.c.

Refer this for more information: Walkthrough: Compiling a C Program on the Command Line

Hope this helps