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Delivering Skills in NuGet packages

Agent skills can be delivered in NuGet packages as a way to deliver up-to-date library documentation to models.
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Help Shape the Future of .NET: Take the 2026 .NET Developer Survey

Take the 2026 .NET Developer Survey to share your experience, help identify common challenges, and guide future .NET investments. The survey takes about 15 minutes.
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Nov 11, 2026
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Resources for the SQL AI Developer

Jerry Nixon

I see three agentic stories shaping SQL’s future. Here’s how DP-800 connects the pieces and helps you build the skills to put SQL’s AI capabilities to work.

Nov 11, 2026
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Preconfigured agents with Microsoft Agent Framework for Go

Michelle Clayton

Use harness.AgentConfig to configure task lists, file memory, skills, approvals, conversation history, and tracing for agents written in Go.

Nov 11, 2026
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Content Understanding adds GPT-5.6, GPT-6, and GPT-6.1: Choose the right model for your workload

Joe Filcik

Azure Content Understanding now supports the GPT-5.6, GPT-6, and GPT-6.1 model families, giving you more choices for document, text, speech, and video workflows. This adds to the existing set of supported models like the GPT-5 series. To help customers understand how to use this expanded set of options, we're updating our model recommendations and sharing the evaluation data behind them. In our GPT-5 model-selection guide, we described model selection as a mixing board: adjust quality and cost for each workload. The new models add range to those controls. Not every workload needs to be set to maximum, so w...

Nov 11, 2026
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Bring Your Own Model is now generally available in Visual Studio

Praveen Sethuraman

Whether your team hosts its own AI models, you have an API key from a model provider, or you want to experiment with a model running on your machine, Bring Your Own Model (BYOM) lets you use those models without leaving Visual Studio. BYOM is now generally available in Visual Studio 18.12. Since the August Preview, your feedback has shaped improvements for team deployments, enterprise networks, and personal projects. This release brings multiple configurations for the same provider, a dedicated custom-endpoint experience that includes local models, more control over API compatibility, and improved proxy suppor...

Nov 11, 2026
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I didn’t write a program with emoji, but I did use a control character

Raymond Chen

My program was a fairly simple one.

Nov 11, 2026
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Make business content ready for AI with M-Files – SharePoint Embedded partner spotlight

Steve Pucelik

What happens when intelligent information management meets the Microsoft 365 ecosystem?  Organizations are looking for better ways to manage growing volumes of business-critical content while preparing that content for AI. As they’re building custom apps, they want strong context and governance along with the Microsoft 365 environments, tools, and security practices they already rely on.  SharePoint Embedded enables developers and independent software vendors to build content-centric applications that bring Microsoft 365 collaboration, security, and compliance capabilities directly into their solutions.  ...

Nov 11, 2026
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Go 1.27.4-1 and 1.26.11-1 Microsoft builds now available

Davis Goodin

A new release of the Microsoft build of Go including security fixes is now available for download.

Nov 11, 2026
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What’s new across Microsoft SQL in 2026 so far: the PASS Summit West roundup

Anna Hoffman

[almost] A year of building on Microsoft SQL - 2026 I'm back with a really long and exhaustive list of updates across Microsoft SQL in 2026. This time I'm tuning in from PASS Summit West, and I actually did this blog as a session with other members from the Microsoft SQL team. I'll put a link to that here once it's live. At PASS Summit West, it's a good time to take stock of what changed this year. From SQLCon/FabCon in Atlanta to Microsoft Build and SQLCon/FabCon Europe in Barcelona, the SQL team has shipped updates across SQL Server, Azure SQL, SQL database in Microsoft Fabric, and the tools you use every...

Nov 10, 2026
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Automatic MSBuild configuration for the Microsoft C++ Language Server in Copilot CLI

Sinem Akinci

Accurate C++ code intelligence starts with understanding how your project builds. Compiler options, include paths, and preprocessor definitions all affect how the language server interprets your source files. A compilation database, such as , provides that context, so that tools such as go-to-definition and find-references can resolve symbols accurately.  The Microsoft C++ Language Server now brings automatic configuration for MSBuild-based projects to GitHub Copilot CLI, using the same enterprise-grade C++ and MSBuild tooling we’ve developed and refined over years of investment in Visual Studio. This extends ...

Nov 10, 2026
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Announcing PowerShell 7.7 GA Release

Jason Helmick

This post announces the General Availability (GA) of PowerShell 7.7, the next Standard Term Support (STS) release.

Nov 10, 2026
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Announcing Visual Studio 2026 LTSC 18.11

Jamshed Damkewala

Today, we are announcing Visual Studio 2026 Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) 18.11 alongside Visual Studio 2026 18.12 on the Stable channel. LTSC 18.11 will receive two years of support, through November 14, 2028, rather than the one year of LTSC support we previously announced. If you are using Visual Studio 2022 for its LTSC benefits this is a great time to consider migrating to the new Visual Studio 2026 LTSC 18.11 to get the latest Visual Studio has to offer.   Visual Studio 2026 LTSC 18.11 is not a new product - it is a new support and servicing channel for Visual Studio 2026 so it includes the full fea...

Nov 10, 2026
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Auto SR Officially Launches on ROG XBOX Ally X and X20, Expands to Copilot+ PCs powered by AMD Ryzen

Stefan Bojanic

We're excited to officially bring Automatic Super Resolution (Auto SR) out of preview on the ROG XBOX Ally X and the ROG XBOX Ally X20. Auto SR is also now available on select Windows Copilot+ PCs, powered by AMD Ryzen, with several major new features beginning to roll out today.    This release brings handheld play (undocked on battery), support for games running at 1080p, compatibility with Auto HDR and a new Performance Mode that can run up to 120 FPS. Handheld play, expanded support for Windows Copilot+ PCs powered by AMD Ryzen, and 1080p support are available today, while Performance Mode and Auto HDR sup...

Nov 10, 2026
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Activation via AppUserModelId

Howard Kapustein

An application can be directly activated by calling IApplicationActivationManager::ActivateApplication() with its Application User Model ID, also known as AppUserModelId or AUMID. For example, let's use a package with this fragment: This package's full name is . The suffix is the publisher ID derived from the package's publisher. Its package family name is therefore . The 's attribute is the application's Package Relative Application Id, also known as PRAID. An AUMID is a combination of the application's package family name and PRAID: Thus the card reader's AUMID is . We can now activate the applica...

Nov 10, 2026
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Announcing .NET 11

.NET Team

.NET 11 is here with C# 15, faster developer tools, runtime and library improvements, and new capabilities for web, mobile, desktop, and AI apps.

Nov 10, 2026
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.NET and .NET Framework November 2026 servicing updates

Rahul,
Tara

A recap of the latest servicing updates for .NET and .NET Framework for November 2026.

Nov 10, 2026
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Microsoft employee price list from 1987

Raymond Chen

The Microsoft product catalog.

Nov 10, 2026
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Copilot in Visual Studio Just Got a Major Upgrade

Dalia Abo Sheasha

Copilot Chat in Visual Studio just got a new engine. Starting with Visual Studio 2026 version 18.12, it runs on the Microsoft Copilot SDK developed by GitHub, the same technology powering GitHub Copilot CLI, the GitHub Copilot app, and VS Code. It’s on by default, and it’s a major upgrade: same models, more tasks solved, new ways to work. We put the previous and new Copilot experiences through over one hundred coding tasks. The new experience came out ahead with every model we tested, across capability levels and providers, resolving up to 21 more tasks. The chat itself is better too: you get shorter, more ...

Nov 9, 2026
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Go 1.25.14-2 Microsoft build now available

Davis Goodin

Go 1.25 has been end-of-life since August 2026. This revision release backports a certificate revocation security fix, although the toolset is not supported or secure.

Nov 9, 2026
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Join the Azure DocumentDB team at Microsoft Ignite 2026 in San Francisco!

Marko Hotti

Microsoft Ignite 2026 is just around the corner! From November 17–20, the Azure DocumentDB team will be in San Francisco, and we're excited to connect with developers, architects, and database professionals from around the world. We're especially looking forward to our breakout session, Migrate and modernize MongoDB applications with Azure DocumentDB (BRK375). In this session, we'll explore how to migrate existing MongoDB applications to Azure DocumentDB while minimizing migration risks and disruption. We'll walk through the migration journey - from assessing compatibility and moving data to validating appl...

Nov 9, 2026
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When one pass isn’t enough: agentic mode in Azure Content Understanding

Joe Filcik

Most document analysis takes one efficient pass. Learn how agentic mode gives AI a document-native harness for the hardest tasks, and when to choose it over standard mode. “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Francis Bacon, “Of Studies”, 1625 A.D. Francis Bacon once observed that an intelligent reader doesn’t consume every book the same way: some are swallowed whole, while a few must be chewed and digested. As we build specialized agents to process documents, we’re learning that lesson again. When we started building Azure Content Understanding in ...

Nov 9, 2026
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Windows App Development CLI v0.8: WinUI DevTools Experimental Preview

Chiara Mooney

Windows App Development CLI (WinApp CLI) is a command-line tool for creating, running, debugging, and packaging Windows apps from your terminal or an AI coding agent. Version 0.8.0 is here, and we're excited to share the new features WinApp CLI has to offer. Here are the highlights: Update to the latest release with winget install Microsoft.WinAppCLI, or visit GitHub Releases for release notes and downloads. For npm, run npm install --save-dev @microsoft/winappcli. Here's an overview of what the new version has to offer. ⛏️WinUI DevTools (Experimental Preview) With WinUI DevTools, you c...

Nov 9, 2026
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Do AI coding agents care about SemVer?

Waldek Mastykarz

We gave AI coding agents the same breaking upgrade twice. Labeled 2.0.0, Claude Sonnet 5.5 checked it in all 10 runs. Labeled 1.4.3, it checked in two and often left the app broken. Nearly 1,000 runs show which agents still read your version numbers, and what a patch label talks them out of.

Nov 9, 2026
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How do you run a query against data the database can’t read?

Anna Hoffman

Under the Hood: The Research Behind Microsoft SQL, part 3 Encryption at rest solves one threat. It stops someone who walks off with the disk. It does nothing about someone with administrative access to the running server, because the database decrypts data into memory to do anything useful with it. For a lot of workloads that gap doesn’t matter. For health records, financial data, or anything where the customer’s threat model includes the cloud operator, it matters a great deal. Azure SQL Database Always Encrypted (SIGMOD 2020) describes how SQL Server runs real queries, including range comparisons and L...

Nov 6, 2026
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Java OpenJDK October 2026 Patch & Security Update

Josh Martin-Jaffe

Hello Java customers! We are happy to announce the latest October 2026 patch set update release for the Microsoft Build of OpenJDK. Check our release notes page for details on fixes and enhancements or download and install the binaries today. The source code of our builds are now available on GitHub for further inspection: Microsoft Build of OpenJDK specific updates Note: The Microsoft Build of OpenJDK will end support for JDKs 11 and 17 in September of 2027. For more information, please refer to: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/java/plan-your-java-upgrade-ahead-of-microsofts-2027-support-...

Nov 6, 2026
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Why are we all worked up about atomicity when applying hot-patches if we can just suspend all the threads?

Raymond Chen

Suspending all the threads stops the threads that are there now, those are not the only possible sources of change.

Nov 6, 2026
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Work IQ: SharePoint Tools

Paolo,
Patrick

Bring SharePoint into your custom apps and agents with Work IQ API New SharePoint tools are coming to the Work IQ API, bringing SharePoint content and actions to your custom apps and agents through the same workplace intelligence layer that powers Microsoft Copilot. Work IQ connects AI to your organization’s knowledge, people, and workflows, combining context, memory, and skills to help agents understand work and act on it. With these new tools, developers can build agents that find files, manage lists and libraries, and work with approvals—all within the signed-in user’s existing permissions. By dynamically d...

Nov 5, 2026
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Microsoft Foundry extension for Azure Developer CLI is generally available

John Miller

Set up, test, evaluate, and deploy hosted agents with the generally available Microsoft Foundry extension for Azure Developer CLI, keeping agent and deployment configuration alongside your code.

Nov 5, 2026
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Help Shape the Future of .NET: Take the 2026 .NET Developer Survey

McKenna Barlow

Take the 2026 .NET Developer Survey to share your experience, help identify common challenges, and guide future .NET investments. The survey takes about 15 minutes.

Nov 5, 2026
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Modernize your .NET apps for Windows Arm64 with GitHub Copilot

Mika Dumont

Modernize your .NET apps for Windows Arm64 with the GitHub Copilot upgrade agent, from identifying migration blockers to planning and making code changes.

Nov 5, 2026
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Your best AX fixes are hiding in agent trajectories

Waldek Mastykarz

All five agent runs produced a working script, and nothing in the eval score looked wrong. The trajectories told a different story. Every run read a DLL as raw bytes to find plugin names, and three scripts would quietly reroute a CI runner's network traffic. Here are the patterns to look for in your own agents' trajectories, and what to change in your product when you find them.

Nov 5, 2026
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October 2026 Node.js vulnerabilities: Azure DevOps security guidance

Josef Sin

On October 21, 2026, the Node.js project released fixes for 10 vulnerabilities. These include flaws in DNS resolution and TLS certificate validation, along with a Brotli decompression bug that can corrupt memory and potentially allow code execution when an application processes attacker-controlled data. The fixes shipped in 22.23.4, 24.22.1 and 26.12.1, with different affected branches and prerequisites for each CVE. Azure Pipelines can use Node.js in several contexts, including agent task runners, pipeline-selected tools and application runtimes. Each has a separate update path. Vulnerability scope...

Nov 5, 2026
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You shouldn’t change the style of a Win32 static control after it has been created

Raymond Chen

It doesn't really handle that case.

Nov 5, 2026
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Bring Agentic Coding On-Device with Foundry Local

Baiju,
Emma,
Tianlei

Foundry Local brings agentic coding directly to developer hardware.

Nov 5, 2026
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What’s new in Microsoft Foundry | October 2026

Nick Brady

Plan your Microsoft Ignite November 17-20 viewing, then explore October's Copilot harness preview, GA browser automation and hosted-agent resilience, Decisions API, and SDK updates with chapter-linked Handoff demos.