C++ Team Blog
The latest in C++, Visual Studio, VS Code, and vcpkg from the MSFT C++ team
Latest posts
Streamline C++ Code Intelligence Setup in Copilot CLI
C++ developers can now bring IDE-style semantic intelligence into Copilot CLI with less setup. The C++ language server plugin supports richer code navigation, diagnostics, symbol understanding, and code changes by using the same build context your compiler does. That build context usually comes from a file, which tells the language server how each source file is compiled. Instead of manually wiring that file together, the C++ language server plugin now provides a setup LSP skill that can help generate or refresh compile commands for common project types, including CMake and MSBuild. For custom build systems, ...
Boosting Adobe Photoshop’s Performance with MSVC and SPGO
Boosting Adobe Photoshop’s Performance with MSVC and SPGO Adobe and Microsoft worked together to improve Photoshop performance and responsiveness on Windows by combining MSVC’s peak-performance build settings with Sample-based Profile-Guided Optimization (SPGO). The collaboration focused on real customer scenarios where latency matters most, including brush and stroke responsiveness, file open times, and other CPU-intensive operations that directly affect creative flow. Adobe’s combined benchmarking showed improvements of 20% on x64 and 13% on ARM64, demonstrating how modern compiler technology can translate int...
GitHub Copilot modernization for C++ is out of preview
GitHub Copilot modernization for C++ is out of preview as of Visual Studio 2026, helping you upgrade your MSVC Build Tools with an AI-guided workflow.
MSVC Build Tools Preview updates – June 2026
Try the latest updates to MSVC Build Tools Preview
What’s New in vcpkg (May 2026)
This release includes major library updates for Boost 1.91, Qt 6.11, and OpenCASCADE 8.0, along with 27 new ports and over 500 port updates.
What’s New for C++ Developers in Visual Studio 2026 (18.1 – 18.6)
Visual Studio 2026 versions 18.1 through 18.6 deliver a wave of improvements for C++ developers. For MSVC Build Tools, the v14.51 release is now generally available with runtime performance gains and improved C++23 conformance. We also introduced Sample Profile Guided Optimization to help you improve the runtime performance of your C/C++ programs. In the IDE, we made significant investments in AI-powered experiences to optimize your builds, modernize your code, debug and profile, and more. We enhanced Copilot Chat to make it easy to incorporate skills, custom agents, and MCP servers into your workflow. We also ad...
Introducing Sample Profile Guided Optimization in MSVC
Profile Guided Optimization (PGO) has long been one of the most powerful tools in the MSVC compiler's arsenal for improving the runtime performance of C and C++ applications. By using execution profile data collected from representative workloads, PGO enables the compiler to make smarter decisions about inlining, code layout, and hot/cold code separation - decisions that are impossible to make from static analysis alone. In practice, PGO can deliver large performance improvements for C/C++ code. Today, we're introducing Sample Profile Guided Optimization (SPGO), a new approach to profile-guided optimization th...
NuGet PackageReference for C++ Projects in Visual Studio
Native C++ projects (.vcxproj) now support NuGet PackageReference, the same modern package management experience .NET developers have used for years. Available as an experimental feature in Visual Studio 2026 version 18.7.
Segment Heap support for C++ projects in Visual Studio
Learn how Visual Studio enables Segment Heap by default for new C++ projects and how to adopt and verify it in existing builds.
MSVC Build Tools Preview updates – May 2026
Try the latest updates to MSVC Build Tools Preview
MSVC Build Tools version 14.51 (GA) now available
MSVC Build Tools v14.51 GA available in Visual Studio 2026 18.6
Project-Specific Build Optimizations with GitHub Copilot
We are excited to announce that GitHub Copilot build performance for Windows now supports project-specific builds! Available in the latest Visual Studio Insiders, you can target a single MSBuild project or CMake target instead of analyzing your entire solution. For game developers and teams working with large codebases, this eliminates the need to wait for a full-solution build when you only want to optimize one project. Since launching GitHub Copilot build performance for Windows in Public Preview, we have received a lot of feedback from game studios working on large engines and enterprise monorepos. Rebuildi...
What’s New in vcpkg (Apr 2026)
These updates include improved locking for parallel builds, cross-platform PE dependency analysis, manifest support for the depend-info command, and other improvements and bug fixes.
Giving Copilot more C++ context using custom instructions in VS Code
In February, we announced how GitHub Copilot can now use C++ symbol context and CMake build configuration awareness to deliver smarter suggestions in Visual Studio Code. Today, we're excited to share new ways to further enhance your C++ development experience with Copilot and get the most out of the language-aware agentic responses, by leveraging custom instructions designed specifically for C++ language tools. Â Enabling Custom Instructions You can access these custom instructions in the awesome-copilot repo, a community-driven collection of instructions, prompts, and configurations to help users get the most o...
Take the 2026 ISO C++ Developer Survey!
The 2026 ISO C++ developer survey is now open: 2026 Annual C++ Developer Survey "Lite" : Standard C++ It takes about 10 minutes and directly informs the standardization committee and tooling vendors so the C++ ecosystem can continue evolving the right way. Please share your feedback and share with your colleagues!
C++ Code Intelligence for GitHub Copilot CLI (Preview)
We recently brought C++ code understanding tools to GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio and VS Code. These tools provide precise, semantic understanding of your C++ code to GitHub Copilot using the same IntelliSense engine that powers code navigation in the IDE. Until now, these capabilities have been tied to GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio and VS Code. Today, we’re bringing this same intelligence to the CLI with the release of the Microsoft C++ Language Server for GitHub Copilot CLI, now available in Preview. Why this matters C++ is difficult for tools to reason about: complex include hierarchies, macros, template...
MSVC Build Tools Version 14.51 Release Candidate Now Available
Try out the final preview of MSVC Build Tools v14.51
C++23 Support in MSVC Build Tools 14.51
We’re pleased to provide an update on C++23 support in the Microsoft C++ (MSVC) Build Tools. This blog post will cover the feature additions in MSVC Build Tools version 14.51, including C++23 language features, libraries, and ISO C++ Core Working Group (CWG) and Library Working Group (LWG) Issue resolutions. We’ll also discuss the plans for completion of C++23 support in the MSVC compiler and how to make use of these latest feature updates. C++23 Language Features The following C++23 language features are now available under and in the MSVC Build Tools 14.51 Preview. An update of the documentation on learn.mi...