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Custom Agents in Visual Studio: Built in and Build-Your-Own agents

Agents in Visual Studio now go beyond a single general-purpose assistant. We're shipping a set of curated preset agents that tap into deep IDE capabilities; debugging, profiling, testing alongside a framework for building your own custom agents tailored to how your team works. Built in...
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Data APi builder (DAB) multiple data sources
Feb 20, 2026
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Light up Multiple Databases with a Single API with Data API builder's multi-source configuration

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Jerry Nixon
Data API builder (DAB) supports multi-source configurations Data API builder (DAB) connects to your database with a safe REST or GraphQL endpoint. But DAB is not limited to just one database. Using a multi-source configuration, you can connect to more than one database simultaneously. ...
Azure SQL Devs’ Corner
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Feb 20, 2026
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Customizing the ways the dialog manager dismisses itself: Detecting the ESC key, first (failed) attempt

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Raymond Chen
Sniffing the asynchronous keyboard state.
The Old New Thing
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Feb 20, 2026
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Using Codes to Increase Adherence to Prompts

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Peter Lasne
Agentic systems have some discretion in the parameters they sent to tooling, but there are cases, such as experimentation, when you need 100% adherence to a set of parameters.
ISE Developer Blog
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Feb 19, 2026
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Migrate your Semantic Kernel and AutoGen projects to Microsoft Agent Framework Release Candidate

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Dmytro,
Shawn
We're thrilled to announce that Microsoft Agent Framework has reached Release Candidate status for both .NET and Python. Release Candidate is an important milestone on the road to General Availability — it means the API surface is stable, and all features that we intend to release with...
Semantic Kernel
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Feb 19, 2026
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Microsoft Agent Framework Reaches Release Candidate

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Shawn Henry
We're happy to announce that Microsoft Agent Framework is now in Release Candidate status for both .NET and Python. Release Candidate is an important milestone on the road to General Availability — it means the API surface is stable, and all features that we intend to release with...
Microsoft Foundry Blog
List of C/C++ DevTools for Copilot Chat
Feb 19, 2026
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C++ symbol context and CMake build configuration awareness for GitHub Copilot in VS Code

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Sinem Akinci
C++ code navigation and build system tooling play an important role in the developer inner-loop. Code navigation tooling provides a precise, semantic understanding of your codebase, while build system tooling helps you express build configurations and variants for reproducible builds. In...
C++ Team Blog
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Feb 19, 2026
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Custom Agents in Visual Studio: Built in and Build-Your-Own agents

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Rhea,
Kelly
Agents in Visual Studio now go beyond a single general-purpose assistant. We're shipping a set of curated preset agents that tap into deep IDE capabilities; debugging, profiling, testing alongside a framework for building your own custom agents tailored to how your team works. Built in...
Visual Studio Blog
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Feb 19, 2026
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Exploring the signals the dialog manager uses for dismissing a dialog

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Raymond Chen
Summarizing the flow.
The Old New Thing
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Feb 19, 2026
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Microsoft C++ (MSVC) Build Tools v14.51 Preview Released: How to Opt In

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Augustin Popa
Today we are releasing the first preview of the Microsoft C++ (MSVC) Build Tools version 14.51. This update, shipping in the latest Visual Studio 2026 version 18.4 Insiders release, introduces many C++23 conformance changes, bug fixes, and runtime performance improvements. Check out the...
C++ Team Blog
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Feb 18, 2026
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What's new in Microsoft Foundry | Dec 2025 & Jan 2026

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Nick Brady
Catch up on all the new models, audio updates, fine-tuning expansions, and SDK updates from Microsoft Foundry spanning December 2025 and January 2026 — including GPT-5.2, Codex Max, DeepSeek V3.2, FLUX.2, and the azure-ai-projects v2 beta consolidation.
Microsoft Foundry Blog
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Feb 18, 2026
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Python Environments Extension for VS Code

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Vedha Ranganathan
The February 2026 release This release includes the Python Environments extension... Keep on reading to learn more!
Microsoft for Python Developers Blog
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Feb 18, 2026
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Federating Databases with Data API Builder Chaining

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Jerry Nixon
For decades, DBAs relied on linked servers to stitch data together. If you needed data from two places, you wired them up and moved on. It worked. It was straightforward. It felt native to SQL. But what if linked servers are not an option? What if policy blocks them? What if one of the...
Azure SQL Devs’ Corner
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Feb 18, 2026
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TFVC Remove Existing Obsolete Policies ASAP

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Dan Hellem
In April 2025, we announced the deprecation schedule for legacy TFVC check-in policies. This change was required due to limitations in how those policies were previously implemented and stored. The old policies have been marked as obsolete, and you can replace them by selecting the...
Azure DevOps Blog
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Feb 18, 2026
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Could Write­Process­Memory be made faster by avoiding the intermediate buffer?

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Raymond Chen
I guess it could, but why bother?
The Old New Thing
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Feb 17, 2026
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PowerShell, OpenSSH, and DSC team investments for 2026

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Steve Lee
Planned team investments for 2026 for PowerShell, OpenSSH, DSC, and related tooling.
PowerShell Team
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Feb 17, 2026
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JMESPath support comes to azd JSON output

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Scott Addie
Run JMESPath queries on azd JSON output, including error messages.
Azure SDK Blog
GitHub Copilot and Azure SQL
Feb 17, 2026
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Dear Copilot, can you help me with SQL?

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Jerry Nixon
Perhaps we missed it at first, but Copilot is more than comfortable with SQL. This goes beyond autocomplete. This is moving from nothing to a working database without leaving our tools. Have we really arrived? Yes, sort of. For database engineers and app engineers alike, we have crossed...
Azure SQL Devs’ Corner
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Feb 17, 2026
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Meet the First Round of Speakers for Microsoft JDConf 2026

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Bruno Borges
We're excited to announce the first wave of speakers for Microsoft JDConf 2026, our flagship community event for Java at Microsoft. Whether you’re architecting enterprise microservices, modernizing legacy systems, or building intelligent applications, JDConf 2026 will equip you with the...
Microsoft for Java Developers
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Feb 17, 2026
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Microspeak: Escrow

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Raymond Chen
Final build, final, final, final 2, ship this one.
The Old New Thing
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Feb 16, 2026
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Condensed views on Kanban and Sprint boards

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Dan Hellem
One of the challenges teams face when working with large boards or displaying multiple fields on work item cards is limited screen space. This became even more noticeable with the rollout of the New Boards hub, which introduced additional spacing and padding for improved readability....
Azure DevOps Blog
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Feb 16, 2026
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It rather involved being on the other side of the airtight hatchway: Tricking(?) a program into reading files

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Raymond Chen
Is it really a trick when reading the file is the purpose of the program?
The Old New Thing
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Feb 13, 2026
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DPO Fine-Tuning Using Microsoft Foundry SDK

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Jayesh Tanna
In the rapidly evolving landscape of large language models (LLMs), achieving precise control over model behavior while maintaining quality has become a critical challenge. While models like GPT-4 demonstrate impressive capabilities, ensuring their outputs align with human...
Microsoft Foundry Blog
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Feb 13, 2026
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Go 1.26.0-1 Microsoft build now available

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Davis Goodin
A new release of the Microsoft build of Go is now available for download.
Microsoft for Go Developers
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Feb 13, 2026
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How can I distinguish between the numeric keypad 0 and the top-row 0 in the WM_CHAR message?

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Raymond Chen
See if it matches the scan code.
The Old New Thing
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Feb 12, 2026
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Microsoft at DevNexus 2026: Practical AI for Real-World Java Development

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Ayan Gupta
Java developers face a tough trifecta: keeping mission-critical systems running, modernizing legacy apps, and weaving AI into real engineering workflows, all without increasing risk. At DevNexus 2026, the Microsoft Java team is tackling these challenges head-on.  This...
Microsoft for Java Developers
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Feb 12, 2026
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Handling Legacy User Settings in SharePoint Framework

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Paolo Pialorsi
Introduction The SharePoint Framework (SPFx) has undergone some important changes in how it handles Entra ID app registration and security models. Here you can find additional details about what was updated and about the new application IDs used by SPFx. These changes have important...
Microsoft 365 Developer Blog