Visual Studio 2026 Insiders is here – and it marks one of the most ambitious steps forward we’ve taken with the IDE. This release brings AI woven directly into the developer workflow, performance improvements that reset expectations for speed at enterprise scale, and a modern design that makes the environment feel lighter and more focused. […]
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Ever found yourself staring at the Output Window, overwhelmed by endless lines of logs and cryptic messages? You’re not alone! For years, developers have relied on the Output Window for critical build and debug information. But making sense of it—and translating it into action—has been a challenge. What if you could instantly ask questions about your […]
The post Make Sense of Your Output Window with Copilot appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Writing effective prompts for AI tools can be time-consuming and challenging. Cement those efforts by leveraging reusable prompt files. These custom prompts allow for quick access at the prompt box, and they’re automatically stored and shared with your teammates to make it easy to multiply your Copilot successes.   Reusable prompt files solve the prompt-writing challenge  Reusable prompt files let you write, save, and run prompts right […]
The post Boost Your Copilot Collaboration with Reusable Prompt Files appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Today, we’re excited to share our public roadmap, which outlines the next steps in evolving Visual Studio with AI-powered agentic experiences. With every month, we aim to deliver smarter, faster, and more intuitive tools that enhance your coding experience. Disclaimer: The items outlined here represent ongoing work for the month. They are not commitments or […]
The post Roadmap for AI in Visual Studio (September) appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

The August 2025 update for Visual Studio 2022 (v17.14) is now available, and it’s all about helping developers stay focused, productive, and in control. Whether you’re building games, tuning performance, or exploring AI, this release brings meaningful improvements that make everyday development smoother and smarter. GPT-5 support now available We’re excited to announce that GPT-5 […]
The post The Visual Studio August Update is here – smarter AI, better debugging, and more control appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Copilot code completions and suggestions in the editor speed you up in your daily programming and coding activities, at every keystroke. They help you finish the line you’re typing or anticipate your next edit, making your workflow smoother and faster. At the same time, editor is where you focus and put in the deep work. […]
The post Better Control over Your Copilot Code Suggestions appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We’re excited to announce that MCP support is now GA in Visual Studio—unlocking richer, real-time context from your entire development stack and expanding the power of Agent Mode like never before. Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that makes it easy for AI agents to connect with external tools and services—think of it […]
The post Model Context Protocol (MCP) is Now Generally Available in Visual Studio 🎉 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Smarter Code Search in Visual Studio: From BM25 to Semantic Search  In our latest 17.14.11 release, we’ve made a significant leap forward in how we explore your code to retrieve meaningful context. Our new Remote Semantic Search integration helps you find exactly what you need faster and with greater precision than ever before.  By embedding […]
The post Improving Codebase Awareness in Visual Studio Chat appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

There’s something special about hosting developers at Microsoft HQ — and this year’s Visual Studio Live! Redmond reminded me why I love these events. The energy in every room was electric. From the moment the first session kicked off, developers leaned in, asked smart, challenging questions, and took every opportunity to connect with the Product […]
The post From Redmond to San Diego: VS Live! Highlights, Session Examples, and What’s Next appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We’re excited to share that GPT-5, OpenAI’s latest frontier model, is now rolling out in GitHub Copilot for Visual Studio. GPT-5 offers faster responses and even better performance for writing and understanding code. This release brings a new level of capability to your development workflow, making it easier to move from idea to implementation. Try […]
The post GPT-5 Now Available in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Support for Visual Studio 2015 will end on October 14, 2025. If you’re using an older version of Visual Studio, we want to keep you productive and secure when using Visual Studio, and strongly recommend you upgrade to Visual Studio 2022, which brings the power of Copilot to your development workflow. It also contains key […]
The post Visual Studio 2015 Retirement: Support reminder for older versions of Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Last year, the Visual Studio team delivered many new developer-focused improvements and AI integrations, many of which came directly from your feedback on Developer Community. In this post, we highlight the team’s favorite features from 2024 that boost productivity, streamline workflows, and enhance your coding experience. Let’s dive in! Image Hover Preview: See your images […]
The post Our Favorite NEW Visual Studio Features of 2024 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Join Your Favorite Speakers at VS Live! Las Vegas With the new year here, many developers are looking for the best ways to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving tech landscape. That’s why Visual Studio Live! Las Vegas, March 10-14, 2025, is a must-attend event! Stay ahead of the curve with the latest enhancements in […]
The post Join us at VS Live! 2025 Las Vegas appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Change Signature allows you to modify a function’s parameters, including reordering, adding, removing, or altering them across various locations. Previously, the Change Signature feature in Visual Studio involved multiple clicks and nested pop-up windows. In Visual Studio 2022 version 17.12, we’ve reduced the number of clicks and eliminated these nested steps to streamline the process. […]
The post Enhanced Change Signature in C++ appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

In Visual Studio 17.13 Preview we have released our updated BenchmarkDotNet diagnosers, allowing you to use more of the tools in the performance profiler to analyze benchmarks. With this change it is super quick to dig into CPU usage and allocations of benchmarks making the measure, change, measure cycle quick and efficient. Benchmarking a real […]
The post Benchmarking with Visual Studio Profiler appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Are you struggling with performance bottlenecks in your applications? Look no further! Visual Studio 2022 introduces the Meter Histogram feature in its performance profiling suite, providing you with the tools to analyze and visualize histogram data like never before. The Meter Histogram is a key enhancement to Visual Studio’s performance profiling suite. This feature enables […]
The post Unlocking insights with Meter Histogram in the profiler appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Ever felt frustrated with the search window cluttering your workspace? The latest feature in Visual Studio 2022 gives you more control over the behavior of the Code and Feature Search window, making your search experience smoother and more efficient. Some users have shared that the search window feels intrusive, interrupting your work by appearing mid-screen […]
The post Dock the Code Search window in Visual Studio 2022 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Finding the exact line of code where an issue is occurring can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Whether you are debugging an error on line 43 of a file or diving into a specific section of code, you can efficiently jump to the right places with this newest addition to Code […]
The post Go to line anywhere with Code Search for Visual Studio 2022 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Visual Studio 2022’s Connected Services features are being updated to help you start secure. In the past, for example with Azure Storage, we’d inject the entire connection string into your configuration. With this update, we’ve removed the secrets from the UX – and from what we save to configuration – altogether. This means your code […]
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Visual Studio 2022 introduces a new feature to improve the security of publishing applications to Azure App Service. This feature is designed to disable Basic Authentication and enable integrated security for a more secure publishing process. Basic Authentication has been identified as a less secure method for managing app deployments. Visual Studio 2022 addresses this […]
The post Security updates to Azure publishing from Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

If you haven’t already heard, GitHub just announced Copilot Free! And great news: you can already start using Copilot Free right now in Visual Studio. It’s available now, and we’re putting the finishing touches on a more streamlined experience in January. We’re excited to bring these benefits to the entire Visual Studio family. With Copilot […]
The post GitHub Copilot Free is here in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Are you tired of having to repeatedly launch the Find window in Visual Studio to update your search results? Whether you’ve just refactored some code or pulled recent changes, having to redo a search to get updated results is no longer necessary. With the new refresh option, you can now update your Find results without […]
The post Refresh your Find results appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

If you’re developing applications that target multiple languages and cultures, you probably know how challenging it can be to manage the resources for each localization. You need to keep track of all the strings, images, icons, and other assets that are specific to each culture, and make sure they are consistent and up to date […]
The post Easier localization with the new resource (.resx) manager appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Are you tired of waiting for your conditional breakpoints to hit in C++? Do you wish there was a way to speed up the debugging process and get to the root of the problem faster? If so, you’re in luck! We have some exciting news for you: Visual Studio 2022 has significantly improved the performance […]
The post Accelerate C++ Debugging with Enhanced Conditional Breakpoints appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Have you ever wondered what’s happening under the hood of your .NET application? Do you want to quickly and easily identify and fix performance bottlenecks? If so, Visual Studio has the perfect tool for you: the profiler. The profiler allows you to analyze your code’s performance, pinpoint hot paths, detect memory leaks, address thread contention, […]
The post Discover Hidden Insights with Profiler’s External Code Decompilation appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Visual Studio 2022 continues to be faster with each version. In this blog post we will highlight a couple of the more significant enhancements you’ll experience in 17.11, such as a more efficient C# language service, faster conditional breakpoints and symbol searches in C++. Reduced CPU usage by C# language service Code Indexing In 17.10 […]
The post Visual Studio 2022 – Recent performance enhancements  appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Ever wished to assess your code’s performance without repeatedly choosing the target process or executable for each instrumentation profiling session? If so, you’re among many developers who find this task cumbersome and prone to errors, especially when profiling the same target repeatedly. We understand your frustration and have a solution: Visual Studio 2022 introduces a […]
The post Effortless Instrumentation profiling with Persistent Target Selection appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

In this tutorial we will create a React front-end, with JavaScript, of a TODO web app using a Visual Studio 2022. To get started install Visual Studio with the Node.js development workload. This will include the JavaScript/TypeScript (JSTS) projects and the associated support. The code for this app can be found at sayedihashimi/todojswebapp (github.com). Create […]
The post Creating a React TODO app in Visual Studio 2022 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Do you feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of breakpoints in your Visual Studio project? Wish you could categorize and toggle them on and off with ease? The new breakpoint group feature in Visual Studio 2022 is here to transform your debugging experience. Breakpoint groups allow you to create custom collections of breakpoints and apply […]
The post Organize Your Breakpoints like a pro appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We’re excited to share the latest changes in Visual Studio’s code coverage components. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our previous blog posts: What’s New in Our Code Coverage Tooling? and Code coverage features in Visual Studio Enterprise. C++ Code Coverage Tired of instable native code coverage that doesn’t support ARM64? Now, […]
The post Next-Gen Code Coverage in Visual Studio: Enhanced C++ Support and Security appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

One of our main goals is to help you and your team collaborate more effectively and efficiently on your software projects. That’s why we are constantly improving our Version Control features, especially the ones related to the pull request workflow. Starting in Visual Studio version 17.11, you can enjoy a smoother and smarter pull request […]
The post Level up your collaborations with the pull request experience in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Are you tired of the hassle of manually configuring your development environment every time you want to launch multiple projects? We’ve heard your feedback and are thrilled to announce a feature in Visual Studio that simplifies your workflow. The Multi-Project Launch Configuration feature in Visual Studio allows developers to set up and save profiles for […]
The post Multi-Project Launch Configuration appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

In Visual Studio 2022 v17.11, you’ll discover several new features that address specific issues developers have reported. These updates don’t belong to a distinct category, but we’re dedicated to sharing them with you in this blog post. You can download the update and view the comprehensive release notes for full details.
The post New IDE features in Visual Studio v17.11 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio 2022 17.11 now offers an improved experience you to refer to their methods, classes, functions, and entire solution directly within the chat. By using the # symbol followed by the name of a method, class, or function,
The post Enhancing Code Comprehension: GitHub Copilot’s Features in Visual Studio 2022 17.11 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Visual Studio 2022 version 17.11 is here and comes with a host of new features for C++ developers. We’ve made improvements across our toolchain, Unreal Engine support, Build Insights, CMake debugger, and more. This post gives a quick overview of what’s available;
The post New C++ features in Visual Studio v17.11 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Debugging and diagnostics are vital skills for any developer, but they can also be difficult and time-consuming to get proficient . That’s why we’ve added some fantastic new features and enhancements to Visual Studio 2022 v17.11 that will help you find and resolve bugs faster and easier than ever before.
The post New debugging and diagnostic features appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Visual Studio 2022 v17.11 includes fantastic updates to everyone working with Git. They bring the richness of both GitHub and Azure DevOps into Visual Studio and part of your natural workflow. This greatly simplifies your inner loop, making you even more productive than before.
The post New git tooling features appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We are excited to announce that Copilot Content Exclusion is now available in Visual Studio 2022 17.11. This feature allows your admins to configure Copilot to ignore certain files in a repository or organization, giving you enterprise control that ensures sensitive information is protected while seamlessly integrating trusted AI for efficient coding.
The post Copilot Content Exclusion Now Available in Visual Studio 2022 17.11 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We’re excited to announce the availability of Visual Studio 2022 v17.12 Preview 1 – the first preview of our next update to Visual Studio. This update focuses on providing fantastic developer experiences for working with .NET 9 projects and new AI productivity features,
The post First preview of Visual Studio 2022 v17.12 with .NET 9 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We are thrilled to announce the General Availability (GA) of Visual Studio 2022 version 17.11. This release is a testament to our commitment to listening to you, our developer community. Every enhancement, every fix, and every new feature in this release has been shaped by your feedback.
The post Visual Studio 2022 v17.11 – Your feedback in action appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Hi everyone! I’m Serena, a rising 4th year at Rochester Institute of Technology with a major in Computer Science and a minor in Psychology. This summer I was a returning intern at Microsoft as a software engineering intern with the JavaScript and TypeScript Tooling team.
The post My Summer Experience as a SWE Intern at Microsoft appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

One of the most powerful and frequently used features of Visual Studio is the Attach to Process dialog, which enables you to debug processes running on your machine or on a remote machine. For anything you could develop using Visual Studio,
The post Introducing the revamped Attach to Process experience appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

You can now leverage Sign CLI for a more secure, modern way to sign your Visual Studio extensions. Signing your VSIX packages improves security, prevents tampering, and builds trust with your users. This integration makes it easier and more convenient to sign your packages than ever before!
The post Sign VSIX packages with Sign CLI appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Here is one Visual Studio tip from my colleague Gwyn Peña-Siguenza which I didn’t know about! Yes, even after 26 years using this fantastic tool, I am still discovering new features. So thanks to Gwyn for this!! This is all about deleting lines,
The post Visual Studio tip: Using Ctrl-L to delete a line with and without Clipboard backup appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

A Visual Studio Subscription, whether Professional or Enterprise, delivers far more than just software usage rights; it’s a comprehensive toolkit designed to significantly boost your development capabilities and career growth. These subscriptions can save you thousands each year, offering everything from monthly Azure credits for cloud experimentation to complimentary access to premium training platforms like Pluralsight and LinkedIn Learning.
The post Three New Premium Visual Studio Subscriber Benefits Announced appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Any web, desktop, or mobile developer works with images often. You reference them from C#, HTML, XAML, CSS, C++, VB, TypeScript, and even in code comments. Some images are local, and some exist online or on network shares, while others only exist as base64 encoded strings.
The post Making Visual Studio a bit more visual appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Visual Studio LIVE! Microsoft HQ 2024

August 5-9 | Microsoft Conference Center, Redmond, WA

There’s still time to register, join us, get your questions answered, and bring back a wealth of knowledge and excitement to your teams! We’re close to selling out for next month’s conference,
The post Get Hands-On with Visual Studio and Azure: Live at Microsoft HQ this August! appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Have you ever struggled to understand what a commit was doing or why it was made? Do you wish you had more clarity and context when reviewing or collaborating on code changes? If you answered yes, then you’ll love what GitHub Copilot can do for you: generate commit explanations.
The post Demystify history with GitHub Copilot commit explanations appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

At //Build 2024, the WinUI team announced a renewed focus on WinUI as one of the premier app development frameworks we recommend for native Windows app development. To make it as seamless and easy as possible to get into coding, we created a new Windows Dev Center page,
The post Dive into native Windows development with new WinUI workload and template improvements appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Writing good pull request descriptions is essential for effective code reviews and collaboration. But it’s time-consuming and tedious, especially when you have multiple commits or complex changes. That’s why we’re highlighting a feature that will make your life better with the help of GitHub Copilot: generated pull request descriptions.
The post Let GitHub Copilot draft of your pull request description appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We are thrilled to announce the latest enhancements to the .NET Upgrade Assistant. .NET Upgrade Assistant helps upgrade solutions to newer versions of .NET. Whether you’re upgrading from .NET Framework to .NET 8 or just between .NET Core versions (from .NET 6 or 7 to .NET 8 or 9),
The post Code Assessment with .NET Upgrade Assistant appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Visual Studio is coming to Microsoft Update! We’re pleased to announce that starting in August 2024, developers who are not part of an organization managed by an IT administrator can choose to receive monthly Visual Studio security updates through the Microsoft Update (MU) system on “patch Tuesdays”. 
The post Keep Visual Studio automatically updated and secure through Microsoft Update appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Delegates are everywhere in modern code; a delegate is a type that represents references to methods with a particular parameter list and return type. Developers use delegates to pass methods as arguments to other methods. One example you may be familiar with is with event handlers.
The post Easily navigate code delegates while debugging appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

The Bosch security camera team was seeking a unified development setup for their team and recently re-evaluated Visual Studio as a solution for their C++ projects and remote Linux development needs. Their experience with Visual Studio 2022 featured notable improvements relevant to their workflows such as seamless GDB and CMake/WSL integrations ...
The post Bosch widely adopts Visual Studio for their C++ remote Linux projects appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We believe that boosting the productivity of your development and team collaboration helps you produce better software solutions. That’s why the Visual Studio Version Control team has delivered new features, streamlining your inner loop and code review experiences. You’ll get AI support writing commit messages,
The post Catch up on the latest Git tooling features in 17.10 GA appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We are excited to announce the latest update of Visual Studio 2022, which brings you a range of performance enhancements across various areas of the IDE. In this blog post, we will highlight some of the most notable improvements that you can experience in version 17.10,
The post Visual Studio 2022 – 17.10 Performance Enhancements appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We previously announced the addition of new, optimized Azure VM image offers to help you create and test your applications faster and more easily on Azure VMs and the Microsoft Dev Box service. As we continue to evolve and optimize our offers,
The post Giving our Azure marketplace images a makeover appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.