Microsoft for Python Developers Blog
Read the latest updates about all things Python at Microsoft
Latest posts
Python Environments Extension for VS Code- April Update
The April 2026 release update includes the Python Environments extension... Keep on reading to learn more!
Write SQL Your Way: Dual Parameter Style Benefits in mssql-python
Reviewed by: Sumit Sarabhai If you've been writing SQL in Python, you already know the debate: positional parameters (?) or named parameters (%(name)s)? Some developers swear by the conciseness of positional. Others prefer the clarity of named. With mssql-python, you no longer need to choose - we support both. We've added dual parameter style support to mssql-python, enabling both qmark and pyformat parameter styles in Python applications that interact with SQL Server and Azure SQL. This feature is especially useful if you’re building complex queries, dynamically assembling filters, or migrating existing ...
Python in Visual Studio Code – March 2026 Release
The March 2026 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code is now available. Keep on reading to learn more!
Python Environments Extension for VS Code
The February 2026 release This release includes the Python Environments extension... Keep on reading to learn more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – November 2025 Release
The November 2025 release brings new Pylance features including improvements to Copilot Hover Summaries and a Code Action to convert wildcard imports to explicit imports. Keep on reading to learn more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – October 2025 Release
The October 2025 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This release includes improvements to the Python Environments extension, Copy Test ID functionality, and enhanced environment activation when using Copilot Chat. Keep on reading to learn more!
Simplifying Resource Management in mssql-python through Context Manager
Reviewed by: Sumit Sarabhai and Gaurav Sharma If you’ve worked with databases in Python, you know the boilerplate: open a connection, create a cursor, run queries, commit or rollback transactions, close cursors and connection. Forgetting just one cleanup step can lead to resource leaks (open connections) or even inconsistent data. That’s where context managers step in. We’ve introduced context manager support in mssql‑python driver, enabling Python applications to interact with SQL Server and Azure SQL more safely, cleanly, and in a truly Pythonic way. Why Context Managers? In Python, the sta...
Python in Visual Studio Code – September 2025 Release
The September 2025 release includes pipenv support in the Python Environment Extension, a new experimental hover feature with GitHub Copilot and Pylance, and more!
Announcing the Data Wrangler powered Notebook Results Table
An introduction to the new Results Table integrated into the output cell of Notebooks, powered by the VS Code extension called Data Wrangler.
mssql-python vs pyodbc: Benchmarking SQL Server Performance
Reviewed by Imran Masud and Sumit Sarabhai When it comes to working with Microsoft SQL Server in Python, pyodbc has long been the de facto driver. It's mature, trusted and has been serving the community well for years. But as applications scale and Python becomes more central to modern data workflows — from microservices to data engineering and platforms like Microsoft Fabric — there's a growing need to modernize and improve the developer experience. So, can we take this further? Meet mssql-python - a modern SQL Server driver for Python that rethinks the architecture from the ground up while pres...
Python in Visual Studio Code – August 2025 Release
The August 2025 release includes Python shell integration support for Python 3.13+, Python Environments extension improvements, enhanced terminal suggestions with documentation, and more!
Announcing Full Cross-Platform Support for the mssql-python Driver
After the successful release of Public Preview of mssql-python driver, we’re thrilled to announce a major milestone for the mssql-python driver: full support for all three major operating systems—Windows, macOS, and Linux. This release marks a significant leap forward in our mission to provide seamless, performant, and Pythonic connectivity to Microsoft SQL Server and the Azure SQL family. Try it here: mssql-python Linux Joins the Party With this release, Linux support is officially live, completing our cross-platform vision. Whether you're developing on Ubuntu, Red Hat or Debian, the mssql-python...
Python in Visual Studio Code – July 2025 Release
The July 2025 release includes TBA and more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – June 2025 Release
The June 2025 release includes Copilot chat tools in the Python extension, project creation from a template, language server based terminal suggest, and more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – May 2025 Release
The May 2025 release includes updates in the Python Environments extension, a new color picker added by Pylance, branch coverage support, and more!
Microsoft at PyTexas 2025: Join Us for a Celebration of Python and Innovation
Microsoft is thrilled to announce our participation in PyTexas 2025, taking place this year in the vibrant city of Austin, Texas! At this year’s event, Microsoft is proud to contribute to the community’s growth and excitement by hosting a booth and delivering an engaging talk.
Build AI agents with Python in #AgentsHack
Microsoft is holding an AI Agents Hackathon, and we want to see what you can build with Python! We'll have 20+ live streams showing you how to build AI agents with Python using popular agent frameworks and Microsoft technologies. Then, you can submit your project for a chance to win prizes, including a Best in Python prize!
Python in Visual Studio Code – April 2025 Release
The April 2025 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code is now available. This update introduces enhancements to the Copilot experience in Notebooks, improved support for editable installs, faster and more reliable diagnostics, and the addition of custom Node.js arguments with Pylance, and more!
New Python Driver for SQL Server and Azure SQL!
We’re thrilled to announce the alpha release of our new open-source Python driver for Microsoft SQL Server and the Azure SQL family, now available on GitHub at mssql-python.
Python in Visual Studio Code – March 2025 Release
The March 2025 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include improvements to shell integration, a new setting to change auto test discovery file patterns, inline values shown on hover, and more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – February 2025 Release
The February 2025 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include .
Python in Visual Studio Code – December 2024 Release
The December 2024 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include a special review of docstring generation features from Pylance, the new Python Environments extension in preview, Pylance's "full" language server mode, and much more. Keep reading to learn more!
2024 Python in VS Code Wrapped
As the year comes to a close, we would like to take the time to reflect and celebrate the incredible progress the Python extension for VS Code has made in the past year. From merging in top requested features to countless lines of code written and deleted, keep reading to get an inside look to all things
Announcing: Azure Developers – Python Day
Experience cloud computing with Python on Azure during Python Day 2024!
Announcing GitHub Copilot in Data Wrangler
AI did not write this blog post, but it will make your exploratory data analysis with Data Wrangler better! Today, we’re excited to introduce our first step of integrating the power of Copilot into Data Wrangler. With this first integration of Copilot with Data Wrangler, you’ll be able to: An example of using Copilot in Data Wrangler to filter for listings that allow dogs/cats A common limitation of using AI tools for exploratory data analysis tasks today is the lack of data context provided to the AI. Responses are typically more generalized and not tailored to the specifi...
Python in Visual Studio Code – November 2024 Release
The November 2024 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include docstring template generation with Pylance, Fold/Unfold All Docstrings commands, a variable view with the Native REPL and more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – October 2024 Release
The October 2024 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include Python test coverage support and a default Python problem matcher. Keep reading to learn more!
Announcing the new Python Data Science Extension Pack for VS Code
We're thrilled to announce the launch of the new Python Data Science Extension Pack for Visual Studio Code! This powerful pack brings together some of the most popular and essential VS Code extensions, making it your one-stop shop for all things data science in Python. What's Inside? Our extension pack is designed to streamline your data science journey from start to finish. Whether you're preparing data, conducting analysis, visualizing results, or building and training machine learning models, we've got you covered. This Data Science extension pack currently includes four extensions: ...
Python in Visual Studio Code – September 2024 Release
The September 2024 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include Django test support. Keep reading to learn more!
Announcing the General Availability of the VS Code extension for Azure Machine Learning
Machine learning and artificial intelligence are transforming the world as we know it. With the power of data, you will have countless opportunities to create something new, unique, and exciting. Whether you are a seasoned data scientist or a curious beginner, you need a platform that can help you build, train, deploy, and manage your machine learning models with ease and efficiency. Azure Machine Learning has always been the backbone for machine learning tasks, and we want to further help you in your machine learning journey by improving the way you write code. The VS Code extension for Azure Machine Learning...
Python in Visual Studio Code – August 2024 Release
The August 2024 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include improved Python discovery using python environment tools, inline variable values with the python debugger, and improvements to the VS Code native REPL. Keep reading to learn more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – July 2024 Release
The July 2024 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include a new tool for more performant environment discovery, improved support for reStructuredText docstrings, and community contributed Pixi support. Keep reading to learn more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – June 2024 Release
The June 2024 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include an experimental Python REPL with Intellisense and syntax highlighting, and pytest improvements on the testing rewrite. Keep reading to learn more!
Announcing Data Wrangler: Code-centric viewing and cleaning of tabular data in Visual Studio Code
Today, we are excited to announce the general availability of the Data Wrangler extension for Visual Studio Code! Data Wrangler is a free extension that offers data viewing and cleaning that is directly integrated into VS Code and the Jupyter extension. It provides a rich user interface to view and analyze your data, show insightful column statistics and visualizations, and automatically generate Pandas code as you clean and transform the data. We want to thank all the early adopters who tried out the extension preview over the past year, as your valuable feedback has been crucial to this release. With thi...
Python in Visual Studio Code – May 2024 Release
The May 2024 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include a new Pylance code action and setting, removal of debugpy from the Python extension, socket disablement for testing scenarios, and Pylance performance updates. Keep reading to learn more!
Glow up! A new look for Python Reference documentation on Microsoft Learn
We have a new look for our Python library reference on Microsoft Learn! Learn more about the details in this article.
Python in Visual Studio Code – April 2024 Release
The April 2024 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include an improved debug config flow for Django and Flask, module and import analysis for Run Dependent Cells, Hatch environment discovery, automatic environment selection for popular tools, and Report Issue command improvements. Keep reading to learn more!
Data Science Day 2024 – Schedule Announcement
Python Data Science Day is a full day of 25 min and 5 min community contributed content March 14th, 2024 streaming on the VS Code YouTube channel.
Python in Visual Studio Code – March 2024 Release
The March 2024 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include new add import Code Actions from Pylance, improvements for developing and testing web apps, shell integration in the Python REPL, and improved language support for local Jupyter servers. Keep reading to learn more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – February 2024 Release
The February 2024 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include the Python Debugger extension installed by default, option to create a virtual environment in the interpreter Quick Pick, built-in variable viewer with Jupyter, new diagnostic rules with Pylance, and triggered breakpoints in VS Code. Keep reading to learn more!
Join us for AI Chat App Hack from Jan. 29 – Feb.12
The Microsoft AI Chat App Hack is a two-week virtual hackathon where you can learn how to build a chat app with Python, using the RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) approach with OpenAI and Azure AI Search. You’ll also get to meet other Python developers and learn from Microsoft engineers on live streams.
Data Science Day Announcement and Call for Speaker Proposals
Python Data Science Day is a full day of 25 min and 5 min community contributed content March 14th, 2024 streaming on the VS Code YouTube channel. Submission deadline is January 25th AOE (Anywhere on Earth).
Python in Visual Studio Code – December 2023 Release
The December 2023 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include debug configurations add to the Run button menu, show type hierarchy with Pylance, deactivate support for auto-activated terminals, and additional REPL improvements. Keep reading to learn more!
Python Linting in Visual Studio Code – Hinting and Linting Video Series
Power user settings when enabling your Python linter in VS Code. The goal is for your developer experience to be intuitive, replicable, and shareable.
Python in Visual Studio Code – November 2023 Release
The November 2023 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include improvements to Shift+Enter when sending code to the terminal, deprecation of linting and formatting features, improvements to Python linting extensions, reconfiguration of test output, and virtual environment deactivation help. Keep reading to learn more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – October 2023 Release
The October 2023 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include Python debugger extension updates, deprecation of Python 3.7 support, and a recap of Open Source Day. Keep reading to learn more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – September 2023 Release
The September 2023 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include updates to the Create Environment command, a new terminal auto-activation experiment, and a new yapf extension. Keep reading to learn more!
Announcing: Azure Developers – Python Day
Experience cloud computing with Python on Azure during Python Day 2023!
Python in Visual Studio Code – August 2023 Release
The August 2023 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include a pre-configured dev container for the Python extension, a new debug configuration, an npm package for the Python extension API, and error-tolerant pytest discovery with the testing rewrite. Keep reading to learn more!
Package Management in the Python extension for Visual Studio Code
The Python extension in VS Code is investigating ways to improve our package management support and have completed a comparison of support offered by various package management tools.
Python in Visual Studio Code – July 2023 Release
The July 2023 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This month's updates include an announcement on Python 3.7 support, a new Mypy extension in preview, a Debugpy extension in preview, Pylance localization, and index persistance for 3rd-party libraries with Pylance. Keep reading to learn more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – June 2023 Release
The June 2023 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This release includes a test discovery and execution rewrite, an option to run your Python file in a dedicated terminal, a preview of IntelliSense on overloaded operators, and configurable index limits with Pylance. Keep reading to learn more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – May 2023 Release
The May 2023 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. In this release, Jupyter is no longer installed alongside the Python extension, microvenv support was added for the Create Environment command, new automatic conversion of f-strings, and code navigation on strings that contain module names. Keep reading to learn more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – April 2023 Release
The April 2023 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This release includes Data Wrangler, a create environment button embedded in dependency files, environments API for extension authors, kernel picker improvements, and move symbol refactoring. Keep reading to learn more!
Introducing the Data Wrangler extension for Visual Studio Code
Microsoft announces the launch of Data Wrangler, a data-centric user interface that generates Python code to help data scientists complete their data preparation tasks faster and with fewer errors.
Python in Visual Studio Code – March 2023 Release
The March 2023 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This release includes "back" and "cancel" support for the "Create Environment" command, isort no longer being shipped by default with the Python extension, improvements to the kernel picker experience in Jupyter, and the Python for VS Code team as guests on the Python Pulse livestream. Keep reading to learn more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – February 2023 Release
The February 2023 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This release includes automatic environment selection, improvements to the Create Environment command, improved Intellisense support for pytest in preview, and improvements to the Jupyter kernel picker. Keep reading to learn more!
The Python Pulse: A Monthly Microsoft Stream
We're excited to announce a new livestream, brought to you by the Microsoft Community Team. Need updates on the latest and greatest Microsoft releases for Python? We got you. Each stream we start with a run down of the latest news in Microsoft Cloud, VS Code and Python tech ecosystem, then we deep dive into special segments with an esteemed guest.
Python in Visual Studio Code – December 2022 Release
The December 2022 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This release includes auto indentation with Pylance, a preview of Python in the browser and a community highlight. Keep on reading to learn more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – November 2022 Release
The November 2022 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This release includes automatic installation of the isort extension, auto imports turned off by default with Pylance, "just my code" cell debugging in Jupyter and more!
A Team at Microsoft is Helping Make Python Faster
Python 3.11 brings the specialized adaptive interpreter, the starting point of a large plan to make Python much faster. At Microsoft, we have a full-time team dedicated to this project.
Python in Visual Studio Code – October 2022 Release
The October 2022 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This release includes .... Keep on reading to learn more!
Contribute to Open Source with the Pythonistas at Microsoft – Hacktoberfest 2022
Pythonistas at Microsoft are participating in Hacktoberfest 2022. We've gotten together to share with you tips and tricks for contributing, how we got into Open Source and the projects we have our eye on. Join us for our Twitch Stream October 10th, 2022 2PM PT on the Microsoft Developer Channel.
Python in Visual Studio Code – September 2022 Release
The September 2022 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This release includes improved IntelliSense support for Jupyter Notebooks, a new Flake8 extension and internship highlights. Keep on reading to learn more!
Python in Visual Studio Code – August 2022 Release
We’re excited to announce that the August 2022 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available! This release includes the following improvements: If you’re interested, you can check the full list of improvements in our changelogs for the Python, Jupyter and Pylance extensions. Automatic debug configurations for web apps To simplify the process of setting up VS Code to run and/or debug your web applications, this release includes new automatic debug configurations for projects that use Flask, Django or FastAPI. When you open the Run...
Microsoft at EuroPython 2022
We’re thrilled to be a Platinum Sponsor of EuroPython this year, happening from July 11th-17th in Dublin, Ireland. If you can’t make it in person, you can still attend the conference remotely, as EuroPython is a hybrid event this year! Our team members will be giving a variety of talks during the conference: Make sure you don’t miss them! We’ll also be at the Microsoft booth talking about the hard work our teams have been doing to continue supporting the Python community, and to improve the experience for Python developers across our products over the past year. For instance, Visual S...
Python in Visual Studio Code – July 2022 Release
We’re excited to announce that the July 2022 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This release includes inlay type hints with Pylance and improvements to the setup experience with Jupyter notebooks. If you’re interested, you can check the full list of improvements in our changelogs for the Python, Jupyter and Pylance extensions. Inlay Type Hints Inlay hints add inline information to your code in the editor to help you understand the meaning of a variable or a function at a glance. In this release, we have added two types of inlay hints when using Pylance: ...
Python in Visual Studio Code – June 2022 Release
We’re excited to announce that the June 2022 release of the Python and Jupyter extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available. This release includes improvements to: If you’re interested, you can check the full list of improvements in our changelogs for the Python, Jupyter and Pylance extensions. Improved localization support The Python extension now supports translations in all the languages that VS Code supports. We have updated the way we get the text of our commands, notifications, and titles to use translations that are maintained by a localization team, to ensure that the...
Python in Visual Studio Code – May 2022 Release
We’re excited to announce that the May 2022 release of the Python and Jupyter Extensions for Visual Studio Code are now available! With this release we’re introducing three new extensions: Black, isort, and Jupyter Powertoys. If you’re interested, you can check the full list of improvements in our changelogs for the Python, Jupyter and Pylance extensions. Black extension As mentioned before, our team is working towards breaking the tools support we offer in the Python extension into separate extensions, with the intent of improving performance and stability. We now have a new extension for Black, the P...
Python in Visual Studio Code – April 2022 Release
The April 2022 release of the Python Extension for Visual Studio Code is now available. In this release we’re introducing a Pylint extension, a simpler way to create empty Python and Jupyter Notebook files, fixes for running and debugging files with conda environment and moving the interpreter display in the status bar to the right.
Python in Visual Studio Code – March 2022 Release
The March 2022 release of the Python Extension for Visual Studio Code is now available and it includes support for pre-release versions and changes to the interpreter selector on the status bar.
Python in Visual Studio Code – February 2022 Release
We are happy to announce that the February 2022 release of the Python Extension for Visual Studio Code is now available! This release includes smart selection, better folding support, improvements to the Python interpreters list and when using Anaconda. Keep on reading to learn more!