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.

With the recent revamp of Visual Studio’s Resource Explorer, developers are in for a treat! We’re thrilled to unveil the reimagined Visual Studio Resource Explorer, and trust us, it’s a game-changer.

Developers who manage resources in Visual Studio will be delighted to learn that we have finally updated our out-of-the-box resource management experience to better accommodate the needs of the modern .NET developer.
The post Introducing the Revamped Visual Studio Resource Explorer appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We’re bringing our updated Extension Manager to all users! Over the last year, we’ve made our updated Extension Manager available as an optional preview feature and have been asking you to let us know what you think. Based on your incredible feedback,
The post A modern Extension Manager has arrived with Visual Studio 17.10 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Imagine creating extensions that run faster and smoother than ever before! If you haven’t been following along lately, we’ve been working on improving the VisualStudio.Extensibility SDK. VisualStudio.Extensibility helps you build extensions that run outside the main IDE process for improved performance and reliability.
The post VisualStudio.Extensibility 17.10: Debug your extensions with the Diagnostics Explorer appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We are excited to announce the release of Visual Studio 2022 v17.11 Preview 1, the first preview of our next update for Visual Studio 2022. This preview focuses on quality-of-life improvements for all developers and workloads. See the release notes for full list of features.
The post First preview of Visual Studio 2022 v17.11 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Today, as we kick off the //BUILD 2024 conference, we’re thrilled to share the general availability of Visual Studio 2022 17.10! This release features a new, single GitHub Copilot extension, marking a significant leap forward in AI-assisted development by embedding the power of advanced AI directly into strategic parts of your Integrated Development Environment (IDE). 
The post Visual Studio 2022 17.10 and GitHub Copilot: Your Coding Partner for Faster and Smarter Development appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

In our previous post, we discussed GitHub Copilot’s Slash Commands, which allow you to trigger specific actions within Visual Studio with simple text-based inputs. Now, let’s explore the /optimize command and its potential to improve code quality in Visual Studio.

Refactoring with /optimize

In a recent exploration by Bruno Capuano,
The post Improve your code quality with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

MICROSOFT BUILD 2024

Watch it Live! or On-Demand – Starting Next Tuesday!

Next week, from May 21st, I’ll be diving into Microsoft Build 2024, and I invite you to come along for the ride—virtually! We’ll explore cutting-edge developments in Visual Studio,
The post Get Ready for Visual Studio at Build 2024: Join Thousands Online! appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

GitHub Copilot, the AI-powered coding assistant, revolutionizes coding in Visual Studio with its advanced features. In this series, we delve into the efficiency and convenience offered by Slash Commands, elevating your coding workflow.

Introducing Slash Commands

Slash Commands are predefined actions within GitHub Copilot,
The post Mastering Slash Commands with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

In this series, we delve into GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio, showcasing how it aids coding. GitHub Copilot functions as a coding GPS, guiding you through software development in Visual Studio. In our new short video, Bruno Capuano shows how this smart coding assistant boosts coding efficiency and quality.
The post Using GitHub Copilot as your Coding GPS appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Pure Virtual C++ is our free one-day virtual conference for the whole C++ community. This year it will run on April 30th 15:00 UTC. Sign-up for free to get access to our five sessions on the day and a host of pre-conference content which will roll out in the two weeks leading up to the conference.
The post Free Pure Virtual C++ 2024 Conference appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

GitHub Copilot serves as an AI-powered coding assistant capable of operating across various development environments, assisting you with your everyday coding challenges. In this new series of content, we will demonstrate how GitHub Copilot functions in Visual Studio especially and how it boosts your efficiency.
The post How to use GitHub Copilot Chat in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

GitHub Copilot your AI-powered coding companion is now seamlessly woven into your Visual Studio IDE, enhancing your everyday tasks and bringing you the latest AI-driven coding experiences. Copilot is designed to elevate your efficiency, by offering personalized code suggestions, crafting your git commit messages,
The post Introducing the new Copilot experience in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

A step-by-step guide to use comments as prompts in GitHub Copilot for Visual Studio. GitHub Copilot is a programming assistant that uses AI (Artificial Intelligence) to help you increase efficiency in your daily programming tasks. ...
The post How to use Comments to Prompt GitHub Copilot for Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

A step-by-step guide to enable the AI-powered coding assistant within Visual Studio Introduction to GitHub Copilot. GitHub Copilot is a new tool that helps you write code faster and smarter with the help of artificial intelligence. It can suggest code completions, generate code snippets, and even write entire functions for you. ...
The post How to Install GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

MSBuild is a fundamental part of the .NET development experience, but it can be challenging to new and experienced developers alike. To help developers better understand their project files and access advanced functionality that requires editing the project file directly, we’re releasing an experimental MSBuild editor that has a much richer understanding of MSBuild files than the current XML schema allows.
The post A new MSBuild editing experience appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We just shipped preview support for viewing your GitHub and Azure DevOps pull request comments directly in your working file in Visual Studio in 17.10 Preview 2. As one of the most highly requested Git tooling feature suggestions on Developer Community,
The post See Your Pull Request Comments with the Latest Preview appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) for Visual Studio in ARM64. This enhancement comes with the exciting release version 17.10 Preview 2. Release of SSDT for Visual Studio on arm64 adds SQL development to the capabilities of Visual Studio on arm64.
The post Announcing SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) for ARM64 Architecture in Visual Studio 17.10 Preview 2 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Join us on Wednesday, March 20th, 2024, at this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco for a special session on using Visual Studio and GitHub Copilot. In this session, you will learn how to leverage these tools to increase your productivity and modernize your game development workflow.
The post Visual Studio and GitHub Copilot at GDC 2024 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

In the rapidly evolving world of software development, staying ahead of the curve is crucial. The introduction of AI in Visual Studio, particularly GitHub Copilot, has revolutionized the way developers code. With Copilot integrated into Visual Studio, you can leverage AI to streamline your workflows,
The post GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio: A Recap of 2023 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We hope you all enjoyed the new and updated features that came with our first preview of Visual Studio 17.10, and now we have even more to share! This release brings additional tools to help you improve your code reviews with Copilot,
The post Introducing Visual Studio 17.10 – Preview 2 is Here! appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Visual Studio 2022 version 17.9 introduces a host of new features and improvements for C++ developers. Now, you can use the Memory Layout feature to visualize the memory layout of your classes, structs, and unions directly in the editor. Additionally, the #include Diagnostics feature provides insights into the frequency of element usage from an included file,
The post Visual Studio 2022 Version 17.9: A Comprehensive Update for C++ Developers appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

I stared at my Visual Studio Subscriptions portal with a somewhat blank distance in my eyes as a feeling of inadequacy spread like the misty rains I’ve experienced in the Pacific Northwest. If you haven’t been here, they are the kind that slowly permeate clothes with the intent of educating one on the difference between waterproof and water resistant.
The post Visual Studio Subscriptions – A Product Manager’s Journey appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

By using code coverage, you can find out where your testing needs improvement and make your software more robust and dependable. In this post, we will introduce the new features that we introduced to the Code Coverage Results window in Visual Studio Enterprise 2022.
The post Code coverage features in Visual Studio Enterprise appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Visual Studio 2022’s transition to a 64-bit architecture, driven by customer feedback across the full range of Visual Studio developers, marked a pivotal step towards enhancing the development experience. As Klaus Loffelmann describes in his blog post, this transition enhances overall performance and responsiveness,
The post WinForms Designer Selection for 32-bit .NET Framework Projects  appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

In 2023, we added many new features, fixes, and improvements to Visual Studio 2022 to make your coding experience more productive, enjoyable, and accessible. This blog post looks back at all the notable enhancements that shipped in 2023 for Visual Studio 2022.
The post Visual Studio’s Full Year in Review (2023) appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Game development is evolving rapidly and keeping up with the latest trends is crucial. I’m thrilled that David Li took the time to highlight all the improvements added to Visual Studio for game developers during 2023. Check out his blog here. 
The post A Year of C++ Game Development Improvements in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

GitHub Copilot Chat is now available in Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code for users with an active subscription. Copilot Chat is an AI pair-programmer that allows you to speak in natural language through the chat interface to accomplish programming tasks such as understanding sections of code,
The post Using Copilot Chat with C++ in Visual Studio: Generate code, fix functions, and more.. appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Over the last year, we’ve been building a better Extension Manager for Visual Studio that makes it easier for you to find and install great extensions. Along the way, we’ve invited Visual Studio Preview users to try out the new design and share their feedback with us.
The post A Streamlined Extension Manager comes to Visual Studio 17.9 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

The new VisualStudio.Extensibility SDK helps you build extensions that run outside of the main IDE process for improved performance and reliability. With a focus on developer productivity, it features a modern, intuitive .NET Core-based API and solid, well-maintained documentation.

This public preview release builds on our previous developer previews,
The post VisualStudio.Extensibility: Install extensions without restarting Visual Studio! appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Less than 3 weeks to go! Join Us at Visual Studio LIVE! Las Vegas

Are you at the forefront of driving business innovation using Visual Studio? With our room block running low, decide today to secure your spot at Visual Studio LIVE!
The post Last Chance: Visual Studio LIVE! – Las Vegas appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

We’re excited to introduce the first preview of Visual Studio 17.10! This is where we get to show you what we’ve been working on and what we’re planning, and with feedback from the most active developer community on the planet, we get to deliver truly compelling products.
The post Introducing Visual Studio 17.10 – Preview 1 is Here! appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Welcome to Visual Studio 2022 17.9! This release comes with more capabilities and improvements that enhance productivity for you and your team, such as AI-assistance and better extensibility. Plus, we’re always improving core productivity and performance! We’ve included suggestions from you in the community and are publishing more about our backlogs in our release notes and roadmap.
The post Visual Studio 2022 17.9 Now Available appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

In retrospect, the past year our team was on a mission to enhance Profiling tools, making them more efficient and user-friendly. We improved instrumentation and our .NET counter tool, broadened platform support, seamlessly integrated unit test profiling, and boosted overall performance.
The post A Look Back: Visual Studio’s Profiling Tool Advancements in 2023 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

The .NET team has been working hard all through 2023 to create innovative features to enhance the productivity and experience of .NET developers. This blog dives into James Montemagno’s favorite new .NET features in Visual Studio. 

I was particularly interested in Dev Tunnels.
The post 2023’s Top 10 New Features for .NET in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

December 3rd was celebrated as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, or IDPWD, to bring awareness and understanding of the issues that people with disabilities face around the world. At Microsoft, we are committed to empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more,
The post Developing With Accessibility in Mind at Microsoft   appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Reflecting on the past year’s journey, our team was on a mission to enhance debugging tools, ensuring they became more efficient and user-friendly. We dedicated our efforts to boosting inner-loop productivity, making external source debugging more seamless, improving overall performance, and optimizing memory analysis.
The post In the Debugger’s Spotlight: A Year in Review appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

As we enter the new year, it’s a good time to look back at all the features and improvements we made for C++ developers in Visual Studio in 2023. We’ve made advancements across the IDE, toolchain, and the vcpkg package manager in both performance and functionality.
The post A Year of C++ Improvements in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Have you ever wished you had an AI assistant that could help you write code faster and better? That’s what Visual Studio Copilot Chat offers you: an AI-powered pair programmer that can answer your questions, suggest code snippets, explain code logic,
The post Code Faster and Better with GitHub Copilot’s New Features: Slash Commands and Context Variables appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Git and Version Control skills are essential for development, but they’re often glossed over in coding curriculum and onboarding. We often memorize a few commands without understanding how to recover from sticky situations or leverage Git to the fullest. Are you ready to take your GitHub knowledge to the next level within Visual Studio?
The post Elevate Your Git and GitHub Skills in Visual Studio with the Intermediate and Advanced Series appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Over the last year, we’ve invested heavily in new capabilities to help Visual Studio developers code more easily. Let’s look back on some of the additions that aim to make your coding experience more productive.
Feature Name

Release
Spell Checker

17.5
All-In-One Search

17.5
Markdown

17.5
Brace Pair Colorization

17.6
Sticky Scroll

17.6
Compare Files

17.7
Copy and Trim Indentation

17.7
Case-preserving Find and Replace

17.8
Summary Diff

17.8
Rename suggestions

17.9 Preview 1
All-In-One Search plain text support

17.9 Preview 1
Productivity highlights

Here’s a snapshot of some productivity enhancements that shipped in 2023,
The post Visual Studio productivity features in 2023 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

With the release of 17.9 Preview 3 dropping today, we are bringing some exciting enhancements to the Code Search (also known as All-In-One Search) experience. Since our last update with the search experience, we’ve been hard at work refining the experience and ideating ways to add to the experience.
The post 17.9 Preview 3 brings exciting changes to Code Search appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

As an integral part of our Visual Studio community, we’re thrilled to extend a special invitation to Visual Studio LIVE!, from March 3-8, 2024, at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. This event is a hub for developers eager to explore the latest features in the IDE plus additional insights from experts in Visual Studio,
The post Code, Connect & Learn at Visual Studio LIVE! in Las Vegas. appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.