Programming

From Manual Testing to AI-Generated Automation: Our Azure DevOps MCP + Playwright Success Story

In today’s fast-paced software development cycles, manual testing often becomes a significant bottleneck. Our team was facing a growing backlog of test cases that required repetitive manual execution—running the entire test suite every sprint. This consumed valuable time that could be better spent on exploratory testing and higher-value tasks. We set out to solve this […]
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Fresh Learning Paths Now Available on Pluralsight for VS Subscribers

We’ve been thrilled to see so many of you jump back into your Pluralsight benefit after our April 3rd announcement about extended access. Your enthusiasm for learning and leveling up with Visual Studio inspires us every day. If you haven’t had a chance to dive in yet—or want to explore what’s new since then—I wanted […]
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Azure Developer CLI: From Dev to Prod with One Click

This post walks through how to implement a “build once, deploy everywhere” pattern using Azure Developer CLI (azd) that provisions environment-specific infrastructure and promotes applications from dev to prod with the same build artifacts. You’ll learn how to use conditional Bicep deployment, environment variable injection, package preservation across environments, and automated CI/CD promotion from development […]
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July Patches for Azure DevOps Server

Today we are releasing patches that impact the latest version of our self-hosted product, Azure DevOps Server. We strongly encourage and recommend that all customers use the latest, most secure release of Azure DevOps Server. You can download the latest version of the product, Azure DevOps Server 2022.2 from the Azure DevOps Server download page. […]
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Markdown Support Arrives for Work Items

After several months in private preview and many bug fixes along the way, we’re excited to announce that Markdown support in large text fields is now generally available! 🎉 🦄 How it works By default, all existing and new work items will continue using the HTML editor for large text fields. However, you now have […]
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Better Models, Smarter Defaults: Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-4.1, and More Control in Visual Studio

We’re excited to share some major improvements to the Copilot experience in Visual Studio, including smarter default models, more choices, and easier ways to manage your usage. Smarter default model Copilot in Visual Studio now uses GPT-4.1 as the default model (previously 4o). In our testing, it delivers significantly better performance—faster responses, higher quality suggestions, […]
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Removing Azure Resource Manager reliance on Azure DevOps sign-ins

Azure DevOps will no longer depend on the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) resource (https://management.azure.com) when you sign in or refresh Microsoft Entra access tokens. Previously, Azure DevOps required the ARM audience during sign-in and token refresh flows. This requirement meant administrators had to allow all Azure DevOps users to bypass ARM-based Conditional Access policies to […]
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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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Azure DevOps MCP Server, Public Preview

A few weeks ago at BUILD, we announced the upcoming Azure DevOps MCP Server: 👉 Azure DevOps with GitHub Repositories – Your path to Agentic AI Today, we’re excited to share that the local Azure DevOps MCP Server is now available in public preview. This lets GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code […]
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Agent mode is now generally available with MCP support

Copilot agent mode is the next evolution in AI-assisted development—and it’s now generally available in the Visual Studio June update. Agent mode turns GitHub Copilot into an autonomous pair programmer capable of handling multi-step development tasks from end to end. It builds a plan, executes it, adapts along the way, and loops through tasks until […]
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June Patches for Azure DevOps Server

Today we are releasing patches that impact the latest version of our self-hosted product, Azure DevOps Server. We strongly encourage and recommend that all customers use the latest, most secure release of Azure DevOps Server. You can download the latest version of the product, Azure DevOps Server 2022.2 from the Azure DevOps Server download page. […]
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Next edit suggestions available in Visual Studio

GitHub Copilot code completions, or gray text, are specialized in autocompleting unfinished code or providing helpful template code. In reality, coding activities are more diverse than writing new code. What if Copilot could better assist your coding not only with code generation, but your code editing activities as well? We are excited to announce next […]
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Restricting PAT Creation in Azure DevOps Is Now in Preview

As organizations continue to strengthen their security posture, restricting usage of personal access tokens (PATs) has become a critical area of focus. With the latest public preview of the Restrict personal access token creation policy in Azure DevOps, Project Collection Administrators (PCAs) now have another powerful tool to reduce unnecessary PAT usage and enforce tighter […]
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How to filter C++ Build Insights by project

Visual Studio 2022 version 17.14 comes with quality-of-life improvements to its C++ Build Insights integration that will make it easier for you to navigate large multi-project traces and handle long file names for your build inputs and artifacts. What is C++ Build Insights? C++ Build Insights is a powerful tool that lets you visualize and […]
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Cloud Academy: Unlock Your Azure Skills and Accelerate Your Career

When we launched the Cloud Academy benefit for Visual Studio Professional and Enterprise subscribers back in March 2025, our goal was simple: give you the hands-on, practical learning experience you need to confidently master Azure and cloud technologies — without spending a dime beyond your subscription. Why? Because in today’s fast-changing tech world, knowing theory […]
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Extension Manager updates in Visual Studio

The latest updates in Visual Studio 2022 introduced features specifically designed to improve how you manage extensions. These updates offer tools that help you automate processes, provide detailed controls for configuration, and enhance the user interface to streamline your development workflows. Seamless auto updates Visual Studio now automatically triggers updates whenever you open the Extension […]
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GitHub Secret Protection and GitHub Code Security for Azure DevOps

Following the changes to GitHub Advanced Security on GitHub, we’re launching the standalone security products of GitHub Secret Protection and GitHub Code Security for Azure DevOps today. You can bring the protection of Advanced Security to your enterprise with the flexibility to enable the right level of protection for your repositories. GitHub Secret Protection for […]
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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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Azure DevOps with GitHub Repositories – Your path to Agentic AI

GitHub Copilot has evolved beyond a coding assistant in the IDE into an agentic teammate – providing actionable feedback on pull requests, fixing bugs and implementing new features, creating pull requests and responding to feedback, and much more. These new capabilities will transform every aspect of the software development lifecycle, as we are already seeing […]
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VisualStudio.Extensibility: Editor classification and updates to user prompt

We continue to invest in the VisualStudio.Extensibility SDK to allow users like you to create extensions that run faster and smoother than ever before! VisualStudio.Extensibility helps you build extensions that run outside the main Visual Studio IDE process for improved performance, reliability, and installation without restarting Visual Studio. Additional benefits include a sleek and intuitive […]
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Connecting to Private NuGet Feeds Just Got Easier

The Visual Studio 2022 17.14 update is here, and it brings great quality-of-life improvements—especially around NuGet authentication. From context about the authentication needs of private NuGet feeds to a simplified account selection workflow, this update helps you stay focused on your code! If you haven’t already, download the latest Visual Studio update to take advantage […]
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One Pipeline to Rule Them All: Ensuring CodeQL Scanning Results and Dependency Scanning Results Go to the Intended Repository

“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings In the world of code scanning and dependency scanning, your pipeline is the One Ring—a single definition that can orchestrate scans across multiple repositories. […]
The post One Pipeline to Rule Them All: Ensuring CodeQL Scanning Results and Dependency Scanning Results Go to the Intended Repository appeared first on Azure DevOps Blog.
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Introducing Azure DevOps ID Token Refresh and Terraform Task Version 5

We are excited to share some recent updates that improve the experience of using Workload identity federation (OpenID Connect) with Azure DevOps and Terraform on Microsoft Azure. Many working parts have come together to make this possible and we’ll share those here. We are also very pleased to announce version 5 of the Microsoft DevLabs […]
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Our Favorite NEW Visual Studio Features of 2024

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 […]
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Join us at VS Live! 2025 Las Vegas

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 […]
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Enhanced Change Signature in C++

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. […]
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Benchmarking with Visual Studio Profiler

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 […]
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Unlocking insights with Meter Histogram in the profiler

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 […]
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Dock the Code Search window in Visual Studio 2022

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 […]
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Go to line anywhere with Code Search for Visual Studio 2022

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 […]
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Connect securely to your Azure resources

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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Security updates to Azure publishing from Visual Studio

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 […]
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GitHub Copilot Free is here in Visual Studio

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 […]
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Refresh your Find results

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 […]
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Create internal GitHub repos for your team

Visual Studio 2022 now includes support for creating internal repositories for GitHub organizations. This feature allows developers to work within their GitHub organization’s guidelines within the Visual Studio environment more effectively. Managing repositories involves configuring varying levels of visibility and permissions. Visual Studio 2022’s new feature aims to smooth this process by providing support for […]
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Boost your Git confidence with the new file rename notification

Have you ever renamed a file in Solution Explorer and wondered if Git is tracking your changes correctly? You’re not alone. Many developers have found this process confusing and worry whether their changes are being properly staged in Git. But worry no more – there’s a solution! When you rename files in Solution Explorer, Visual […]
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New Boards Hub Rollout Expectations

Although the process may seem slow, we are steadily progressing toward rolling out the New Boards Hub to all customers. Our plan is to deprecate the old Boards experience for all Azure DevOps service users by the end Q1 2025. The rollout is advancing on two fronts. First, we are setting the New Boards Hub […]
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