C++ Team Blog

The latest in C++, Visual Studio, VS Code, and vcpkg from the MSFT C++ team

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MSVC ARM64 Optimizations in Visual Studio 2022 17.7

September 28, 2023 Sep 28, 2023 09/28/23
Hongyon Suauthai (ARM)
In Visual Studio 2022 version 17.6 we added a host of new ARM64 optimizations. In this 2nd edition of our blog, we will highlight some of the performance improvements to MSVC ARM64 compiler backend, we will discuss key optimizations in the Visual Studio 2022 version 17.7 for both scalar ISA and SIMD ISA (NEON). We started introducing these ...

2x-3x Performance Improvements for Debug Builds

May 7, 2021 May 7, 2021 05/7/21
Pranav Kant
We have made substantial runtime performance improvements in the x86/x64 C++ compiler for Visual Studio's default debug configuration. For Visual Studio 2019 version 16.10 Preview 2, we measure 2x - 3x speedup for programs compiled in debug mode. These improvements come from reducing the overhead introduced by runtime checks (/...

Introducing C++ Build Insights

November 5, 2019 Nov 5, 2019 11/5/19
Kevin Cadieux
C++ builds should always be faster. In Visual Studio 2019 16.2, we’ve shown our commitment to this ideal by speeding up the linker significantly. Today, we are thrilled to announce a new collection of tools that will give you the power to make improvements of your own. If you've ever had time for breakfast while building C++, then you may ...

Improved Linker Fundamentals in Visual Studio 2019

July 25, 2019 Jul 25, 2019 07/25/19
Russell Hadley
On the C++ team we’ve heard loud and clear from users that build times are a pain point. We’ve continued our focus on improving the step, linking, that dominates F5 build times. Fast F5 build times, or iteration build times, are a key contributor to developer productivity and we felt that there was a large opportunity so we narrowed in on ...

Visual Studio Code C/C++ extension: March 2019 Update

April 4, 2019 Apr 4, 2019 04/4/19
Tara Raj
The March 2019 update of the Visual Studio Code C/C++ extension is now available. This release includes many new features and bug fixes, including IntelliSense caching, Build and Debug Active File, and configuration squiggles. For a full list of this release’s improvements, check out our release notes on GitHub. IntelliSense Cache (AutoPCH...

Linker Throughput Improvement in Visual Studio 2019

March 20, 2019 Mar 20, 2019 03/20/19
YongKang Zhu
In Visual Studio 2019 Preview 2 we made the compiler back-end to prune away debug information that is unrelated to code or data emitted into binary and changed certain hash implementations in the PDB engine, to improve linker throughput, which resulted in more than 2x reduction on link time for some large AAA game title. Debug Info Pruning...

Visual Studio 2017 Throughput Improvements and Advice

January 4, 2018 Jan 4, 2018 01/4/18
Terry Mahaffey
点这里看中文版 As C++ programs get larger and larger and the optimizer becomes more complex the compiler's build time, or throughput, increasingly comes into focus. It's something that needs to be continually addressed as new patterns emerge and take hold (such as "unity" builds in gaming). It's something we're focusing on here in the...

Faster C++ build cycle in VS 2017 with /Debug:fastlink

October 5, 2016 Oct 5, 2016 10/5/16
Ankit Asthana
Continuing with our goal of further improving developer productivity with Visual Studio 2017 there have been major investments made for also improving incremental developer builds. The developer incremental build is one where a developer changes a single or multiple source files and builds. The time spent in these builds is almost equal to the...

Faster C++ solution load with VS 2017

October 5, 2016 Oct 5, 2016 10/5/16
Ankit Asthana
The Visual C++ product has had projects ever since its inception.  Visual C++ had its own IDE up through Visual Studio 6.  Starting in Visual Studio .NET, C++ moved to a new IDE shared by Visual Basic, C#, C++, and other tools.  This new IDE used COM everywhere and items in the Solution Explorer were based on IVsHierarchy.  Much of the ...