Yeah, all you need is VS community version. As far as I know VS is the only program that will build unreal projects. It just what happens when using a c++ project at least. the projects are not fully built games that are ready to run, necessarily. I have yet to find a solution around the use of VS. Yeah the .dll(s) have to be built to run the editor instance, Where other engines might use something like .net (built into windows) the dll(s) need to be complied for run time use.