We are excited to announce the latest Visual Studio 2022 17.12 Build Insights features. These updates provide developers with greater control and accuracy when diagnosing and optimizing C++ builds directly within Visual Studio.

Download Visual Studio 2022 17.12 Preview

We extend our thanks to the developer community, particularly our game studio partners, for providing invaluable feedback. Your input plays a vital role in shaping these new features.

Learn more about Build Insights with our tutorials and documentation:

• C++ Build Insights | Microsoft Learn 

• Tutorial: Troubleshoot function inlining on build time | Microsoft Learn 

• Tutorial: Troubleshoot header file impact on build time | Microsoft Learn

Run Build Insights on Selected Files

This feature is a game-changer for those who want to target specific files without analyzing the entire project. You can select a few files, run Build Insights on them, and see exactly how these files impact build performance. It’s perfect for fine-tuning your project and making targeted optimizations. 

Filter Projects 

Working in a multi-project environment? The Project Filter feature allows you to focus your diagnostics on the projects most relevant to your current work. For instance, you can filter the analysis to focus solely on the core components of a specific project, making it easier to pinpoint areas that need optimization. 

Filter Files Using a Glob Pattern

The File Path Filter is incredibly useful for narrowing down your analysis to specific directories or excluding paths that aren’t relevant to your task. For example, you can exclude third-party libraries and focus only on parts of the codebase critical to the current build. 

View Explanation with Documentation Link

You can now see a short description of how each tab of Build Insights can be used, along with a link to the documentation for a detailed explanation. 

Enhanced Save Experience

Now you can designate a folder to automatically store the reports so you can easily access them during your investigation. This will save you the work of manually specifying a folder each time you save your reports. 

Path Updates

We have added a File Name column for both files and translation units. displayed by default to help you quickly identify files without parsing lengthy paths. Additionally, we have hidden full and relative paths to reduce clutter. To see full paths, simply hover over the file.  

New Metrics 

We have added two new columns, “Exclusive Duration” (Self) and “Inclusive Duration” (Total): 

• Exclusive Duration: Measures the time spent solely on the current task. 

• Inclusive Duration: Captures the total time spent on a task, including all nested tasks. 

Renaming of Time Column to Wall Time Responsibility 

When we introduced the “Time” column in Visual Studio Build Insights, we aimed to simplify the naming. However, we’ve found that it may cause confusion. While the column has always shown Wall Clock Time Responsibility (WCTR) or Wall Time Responsibility —which adjusts for parallelism by factoring in how tasks overlap — many users assumed it represented raw task duration. 

To provide better clarity, we’re renaming this column to “Wall Time Responsibility”. This more accurately reflects what the data is measuring: the true impact of each task on the overall build time, especially in parallel environments. We believe this change will help developers gain clearer insights and optimize their builds more effectively. 

Send Us Your Feedback! 

Ready to experience the new features in Visual Studio 2022 17.12? Download it today and start optimizing your C++ builds with Build Insights. Don’t forget to share your feedback with us to help shape future updates! 

Let us know your thoughts and what additional capabilities you’d like to see from this feature next! We are actively developing this feature set and would love to hear what would improve your workflow even more. The comments below are open for us to track any requests. You can also find us on Twitter (@VisualC) or via email at visualcpp@microsoft.com. To open a bug, please see Visual Studio Feedback.