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 […]
The post Fresh Learning Paths Now Available on Pluralsight for VS Subscribers appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

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, […]
The post Better Models, Smarter Defaults: Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-4.1, and More Control in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

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 […]
The post Inside Access: Join Us at VS Live! Redmond for a Week of Deep Developer Learning appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

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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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 […]
The post Next edit suggestions available in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

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 […]
The post How to filter C++ Build Insights by project appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

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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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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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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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 […]
The post VisualStudio.Extensibility: Editor classification and updates to user prompt appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

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 […]
The post Connecting to Private NuGet Feeds Just Got Easier 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 […]
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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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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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Are you tired of waiting for Code Cleanup to finish every time you save your work? Visual Studio 2022 will no longer lock up and get in the way of your tasks as it’s cleaning up the code under the covers. Every developer knows the importance of maintaining clean code. However, the traditional Code Cleanup […]
The post Keep working with non-blocking Code Cleanup appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Are you tired of the uncertainty that comes with using code suggestions from AI tools? We’ve got exciting news for you! Visual Studio 2022 now includes code referencing in GitHub Copilot, ensuring greater transparency and control for developers. We are thrilled to announce that code referencing is now available in GitHub Copilot Chat within Visual […]
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Have you ever found yourself creating temporary variables just to inspect return values from functions? It’s a small task that can quickly become tedious, breaking your rhythm and cluttering up your code. Visual Studio 2022 introduces a smarter way to handle this with “Inline Return Values,” allowing you to stay focused on coding without the […]
The post How Inline Return Values Simplify Debugging in Visual Studio 2022 appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Tired of spending countless hours troubleshooting errors and unexpected values in your code? Visual Studio 2022 introduces GitHub Copilot Variable Analysis. This powerful tool makes inspecting and analyzing variables from Locals, Autos, watch windows and DataTips effortless, helping you solve issues faster and cutting down on time and frustration. Enhanced Debugging Experience Debugging can often […]
The post AI-Powered Insights: Streamlining Variable Analysis with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

Are your unit tests failing, and do you want to debug them more effectively? The latest feature in Visual Studio 2022, powered by GitHub Copilot, has the perfect solution for you. Introducing the Debug with Copilot button in Test Explorer, this feature takes the hassle out of debugging failed tests and gets you closer to […]
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Visual Studio 17.12 is here and comes with a host of new features for C++ developers. We’ve made improvements across our toolchain, C++ Build Insights, Unreal Engine support, and more. This post gives a quick overview of what’s available; for all the details, see What’s New for C++ Developers in Visual Studio 2022 17.12 on […]
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We’re excited to announce a significant enhancement to GitHub Copilot that elevates your C# coding experience. Introducing the new update: GitHub Copilot code completions now provide more accurate and relevant autocomplete suggestions by incorporating additional C# context. Previously, GitHub Copilot generated suggestions based on the content of your currently active file and any other open […]
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In the fast-evolving world of software development, intuitive AI-driven interactions are becoming essential to unlocking new levels of productivity. Today, we’re excited to share our latest innovation – a guided chat experience within GitHub Copilot that reshapes how developers interact with AI. This guided chat experience is available in Visual Studio 2022 17.12 Preview 3 […]
The post Introducing a new, more conversational way to chat with GitHub Copilot appeared first on Visual Studio Blog.

A lesson about the software forensics process involved in developing the Bring Back Plus/Minus extension, which brings back the plus/minus symbols to the editor outlining feature in Visual Studio 2022. While I did have the advantage of being able to look at the Visual Studio source code, I could have figured this out just as well without […]
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