Microsoft
Developer Blogs

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. ...

Sniffing the asynchronous keyboard state.

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

Summarizing the flow.

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...

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.

The February 2026 release This release includes the Python Environments extension... Keep on reading to learn more!

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...

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...

I guess it could, but why bother?

Planned team investments for 2026 for PowerShell, OpenSSH, DSC, and related tooling.

Run JMESPath queries on azd JSON output, including error messages.

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...

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...

Final build, final, final, final 2, ship this one.

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....

Is it really a trick when reading the file is the purpose of the program?

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...

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

See if it matches the scan code.

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...

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...

The SQL + AI Datathon is a hands‑on challenge designed to show how the foundations for building modern, intelligent applications with SQL. Over a set of guided missions and a focused open hack, you’ll learn how to combine SQL with embeddings, semantic search, and Retrieval...

Check whether it is an extended key.

When we launched the Microsoft Learn Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server in June 2025, our goal was simple: make it effortless for AI agents to use trusted, up-to-date Microsoft Learn documentation. GitHub Copilot and other agents are increasingly common, and they need to be able to...

Today we are announcing the beta release of TypeScript 6.0! To get started using the beta, you can get it through npm with the following command: npm install -D typescript@beta TypeScript 6.0 is a unique release in that we intend for it to be the last release based on the current...

GitHub Copilot testing for .NET is now available in Visual Studio 18.3, offering AI-powered tools to quickly create, build, and run unit tests. With flexible prompts and full IDE integration, it supports testing from single methods to entire solutions, helping reduce repetitive tasks and speed up feedback. Try it and share your feedback to shape its future.

Large Language Models (LLMs) have reached a point where general intelligence is no longer the bottleneck. The real challenge in enterprise AI systems behavioral alignment ensuring models that produce consistent, reliable, policy-compliant outputs on a scale. Prompt engineering and...

Refactoring at scale is a time-consuming and error-prone process for developers. In large codebases, developers have relied on manual searches and incremental edits across multiple files to accomplish these tasks. Modern development workflows depend on fast and accurate code navigation...

You can prevent the item from becoming hot-tracked.

azd now supports direct deployments to Azure App Service slots—quick, clear, and slot-aware for the first time.

In the first post of this series, we introduced how Azure Advisor helps Azure Cosmos DB users uncover opportunities to optimize efficiency and make smarter decisions. This follow-up dives deeper into one of the most important categories of guidance: performance. If you've ever dealt...

Find out about the new features in .NET 11 Preview 1 across the .NET runtime, SDK, libraries, ASP.NET Core, Blazor, C#, .NET MAUI, and more!

We are releasing patches for our self‑hosted product, Azure DevOps Server. We strongly recommend that all customers stay on the latest, most secure version of Azure DevOps Server. The latest release, Azure DevOps Server, is available from the download page. To make it easier to find...

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

The Vercel AI SDK is an open-source TypeScript toolkit that provides the core building blocks for integrating AI into any JavaScript application. It works with 20+ AI providers out of the box—including OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral, and more—so you can write your...

The HLSL team is excited to announce the formation of Ecma Technical Committee 57; a committee to standardize the High Level Shading Language. The formation of this committee marks an important milestone in HLSL's development and strengthens Microsoft's commitment to HLSL as a...

Asking nicely, and asking a lot of people.

Introduction: A New Paradigm for AI Application Development In enterprise AI application development, we often face this dilemma: while cloud-based large language models are powerful, issues such as data privacy, network latency, and cost control make many scenarios difficult to...

Applications often need to know what data looked like before. Who changed it, when it changed, and what the previous values were. Rebuilding that history in application code is tedious and error prone. This is especially valuable when exposing a database to an AI agent through MCP servers...

It's your one chance to make amends.

This blog post summarizes changes to the vcpkg package manager as part of the 2025.12.12 and 2026.01.16 registry releases and the 2025-11-13, 2025-11-18, 2025-11-19, 2025-12-05, and 2025-12-16 tool releases. These updates include support for targeting the Xbox GDK October 2025 update,...

User preferences and settings are fundamental components of modern web applications. When developing SharePoint Framework (SPFx) solutions, the ability to store and manage user-specific configurations across devices and sessions becomes crucial for delivering personalized experiences....

We welcome guest author, Matt Kruczek, to share how to build a complete Skills Executor in .NET, combining Azure OpenAI with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) C# SDK to bring the same agentic patterns to the Microsoft ecosystem. You’ll see how to define reusable skills, connect local and external tools, and orchestrate intelligent agent loops—so enterprise teams can standardize AI behavior without hardcoding business logic.

Applications often need access to data without needing access to everything. Social Security numbers, email addresses, and phone numbers are common examples. Storing them is required. Exposing them broadly is not. This is especially valuable when exposing a database to an AI agent through...

Preventing the resize cursor from appearing.

Sometimes applications need to remove data without actually losing it. Soft delete keeps rows in the database while making them invisible to normal application access. This is especially valuable when exposing a database to an AI agent through MCP servers like SQL MCP Server, where safety...

Learn to secure Aspire distributed applications with Microsoft Entra ID authentication. Use AI skills with GitHub Copilot for a 5-minute setup, or follow the detailed guide to understand JWT Bearer protection, OIDC sign-in, and automatic token handling.

An announcement of .NET Framework 3.5 servicing updates on new versions of Windows.

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

Strengthen Identity Security and Eliminate Account Keys Identity is becoming the new security perimeter. As organizations modernize their cloud applications, long‑lived secrets and shared keys introduce unnecessary risk. Azure Cosmos DB now fully supports Microsoft Entra ID for both...

Deny changes to the width.

VS Code has become the unified interface for all your coding agents. Manage local, background, and cloud agents in one place, use Claude and Codex agents alongside Copilot, and benefit from open standards like MCP and Agent Skills. Read the full article

How we built a minimal, scalable GitOps workflow for edge applications using Azure IoT Operations, Azure DevOps, and a multi-repo strategy. Includes pipeline templates and scripts for real-world deployments.

When Visual Studio 2026 reached General Availability in November, it included several versions of the Microsoft C++ (MSVC) Build Tools: 14.50 (initially shipped with Visual Studio 2026) 14.44 (initially shipped with Visual Studio 2022 version 17.14) 14.29 (initially shipped...

Learn what is new in the Visual Studio Code January 2026 Release (1.109). Read the full article

We are currently living through the "fragmentation phase" of the AI revolution. If you’re a developer, you know the drill: You have Claude Code open for reasoning. You have ChatGPT open for logic checks. Then you drop into your terminal to actually build the thing—manually...

This is just a quick post here to assist users with known issues or workarounds, in the interest of remaining transparent on this project. Main Windows MIDI Services Announcement blog post The issues and workarounds here apply only to the new Windows MIDI Services rollout in Windows...

After a busy January (catch up here), we're shifting focus to reliability and refinement. This month is about tightening core workflows, improving agent stability, and building on the MCP foundations we've been laying. Agent Mode & Coding Agents Reliability is the priority this...

The `azd` dev container feature now supports automatic extension installation.

We recently released the GitHub Copilot Coding Agent for Azure Boards to all customers. If you’re not already familiar with it, we recommend taking a few minutes to read this blog post for an overview and details. One of the top requests from customers using the GitHub Copilot Coding...

I've set up a lot of dev machines in my life. Traditionally, this takes a lot of time to get everything just right, but now there's a faster way with WinGet Configuration files. Let me show you how to go from a fresh Windows install to a fully configured dev environment with a single...

You can ask the header to be non-resizing.

Creating Teams Live Events via the Microsoft Graph isBroadcast API is deprecated. We encourage developers to use Virtual Event APIs instead.

Series: Building Serverless Applications with Azure Functions and Azure Cosmos DB In the first post of this series, we focused on establishing the fundamentals of serverless architecture by building and deploying a simple HTTP API using Azure Functions and FastAPI. The post centred on...

If you use editor productivity extensions for Visual Studio 2026, there's good news—they can now load faster! Extension developers with existing MEF-based editor productivity extensions should read this blog to learn about recent changes and how they might be affected.  We...