The Proteus VSM is particularly useful for because it eliminates the risk of "frying" physical components during the early stages of logic testing.
If Proteus refuses to load the file, ensure you are compiling for the correct board definition in the Arduino IDE (e.g., ESP32 Dev Module ). Using the .elf file usually yields better debugging results than the .bin file.
To get started, ensure you have the following installed on a Windows PC: