Mads Kristensen

Automating your Visual Studio extension builds with GitHub Actions

If you’re building and maintaining Visual Studio extensions, you’ve probably ended up with some sort of build and publishing workflow – whether it’s manual, scripted, or stitched together over time. This post is for extension authors who want a simple, repeatable way to build, version, and publish their VSIX files using GitHub Actions. I’m going […]
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29 Jun 2026

Make Visual Studio look the way you want

Themes are personal. Some of us live in dark mode, some swear by high contrast, and some of us have very strong opinions about that one shade of blue from years ago. The new themes in Visual Studio 2026 are built on Fluent, which gives us a much more consistent and accessible foundation, but we […]
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15 Jun 2026

What’s Coming Next in Visual Studio: Our Microsoft Build 2026 Announcements

Microsoft Build kicks off today in San Francisco, June 2 and 3. If you cannot make it in person, the sessions are streaming online for free, and I want to walk you through what we are announcing for Visual Studio this week. One idea tie most of it together. Code is an asset, not just […]
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3 Jun 2026

How AI fixed my procrastination

I struggled to get started. For ages, I kept putting off building this website, creating a new programming language for Visual Studio, and coming up with fresh color themes. Each project looked overwhelming, and I couldn’t find the time or motivation to jump in. It all just felt like too much at once. But when […]
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Artificial Intelligence

22 Dec 2025

Behind the scenes of the Visual Studio feedback system

Here on the Visual Studio team, our top priority is making your coding experience smoother and more enjoyable. And that begins with truly listening to your feedback. We understand that sometimes sharing your thoughts can feel like tossing bug reports and suggestions into a black hole. It doesn’t feel good, and we get it. But […]
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15 Dec 2025

Streamlining your Git workflow with Visual Studio 2026

You’re a .NET developer with a busy morning, and an Azure DevOps ticket drops: “Login endpoint 500s under load.” You’ve got to fix it, review a teammate’s feature branch, and keep your repo clean – all before lunch. Visual Studio’s Git tools turn this everyday Git workflow of creating topic branches, stashing changes, committing, and […]
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10 Dec 2025

Why changing keyboard shortcuts in Visual Studio isn’t as simple as it seems

A straight look at what’s behind the keys We’ve all tried unlearning a keyboard shortcut – it feels like forgetting how to breathe. Muscle memory doesn’t mess around. We wrestle with this every time someone suggest a “quick” shortcut change. It’s not just editing a keybinding but navigating a history that makes Visual Studio so […]
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3 Dec 2025

Visual Studio 2026 is here: faster, smarter, and a hit with early adopters

Dear developers, We’re thrilled to announce that Visual Studio 2026 is now generally available! This is a moment we’ve built side by side with you. Your feedback has helped shape this release more than any before. Since the introduction of the Insiders Channel in September, more developers have downloaded and tested this preview than any […]
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12 Nov 2025

Join us at .NET Conf: Dive into the future of development with Visual Studio 2026

We’re thrilled to invite you to one of the most exciting events in the .NET ecosystem: .NET Conf. It runs from November 11th through the 13th and you’re invited! This annual virtual conference is a must-attend for developers, architects, and enthusiasts looking to level up their skills and stay ahead of the curve in .NET […]
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31 Oct 2025

The Visual Studio August Update is here – smarter AI, better debugging, and more control

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 […]
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27 Aug 2025

Inside Access: Join Us at VS Live! Redmond for a Week of Deep Developer Learning

A long time ago, I stood in a packed room at VS Live! and watched developers erupt in applause after a debugging demo shaved hours off a real-world problem. That was the moment I realized this wasn’t just a conference—it was a place where developers and toolmakers come together to push the craft forward. I’m […]
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23 Jun 2025

Improve the commands in your extensions

As Visual Studio extension authors, our goal is to create tools that empower developers across diverse environments. A key part of this mission involves ensuring that your extension commands remain accessible and consistent across all Visual Studio locales. In your VSSDK extensions, by adding the CanonicalName property to your commands in the .vsct file, you […]
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28 May 2025

Easily dock and float tool windows

You’re in the middle of a debugging session, attempting to chase down that one issue that is causing you trouble. In the heat of the moment, you grab a tool window and drag it out of its docked position – purely by accident. You didn’t mean to drag it, but sometimes when you move the […]
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5 Sep 2024

New IDE features in Visual Studio v17.11

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.
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26 Aug 2024

First preview of Visual Studio 2022 v17.12 with .NET 9

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,
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14 Aug 2024

Visual Studio 2022 v17.11 – Your feedback in action

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.
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14 Aug 2024

Making Visual Studio a bit more visual

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.
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16 Jul 2024

First preview of Visual Studio 2022 v17.11

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.
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22 May 2024

2023 – a year of community experiments

As we enter a new year, we wanted to catch you up on several experiments your feedback and participation helped us fine tune over the course of 2023.

A community experiment is when we identify features believed to increase user productivity and happiness,
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9 Jan 2024

My favorite features in Visual Studio 17.8

It was a busy week for the Visual Studio team, preparing for both Ignite and .NET Conf. And releasing the latest version of Visual Studio 2022 which is now up to version 17.8. There were lots of announcements of cool new features,
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29 Nov 2023