using VS Code and Java extension to develop need JDK from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html install Maven (takes ~5 mins) https://www.mkyong.com/maven/how-to-install-maven-in-windows/
new project (creates pom.xml and src directory with tests) mvn -B archetype:generate -DarchetypeGroupId=org.apache.maven.archetypes -DgroupId=com.beampipeline -DartifactId=beampipeline
had to manage pom.xml manually - added java v1.8 plugin and apache beam dependencies
mvn package
restart