Visual Studio Blog
The official source of product insight from the Visual Studio Engineering Team
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Bring Your Own Model to Chat in Visual Studio
We’re excited to announce that you can now bring your own language model into Visual Studio Chat. You can connect API keys from providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google) to access a wider range of models. This makes it easy to test the latest releases, customize workflows, or run on infrastructure you control. What it unlocks Getting started If you already have an API key from OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google, setup takes just a minute: A few important considerations: This is just the beginning. We’re expanding support for additional mo...
Model Context Protocol (MCP) is Now Generally Available in Visual Studio 🎉
We’re excited to announce that MCP support is now GA in Visual Studio—unlocking richer, real-time context from your entire development stack and expanding the power of Agent Mode like never before. Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that makes it easy for AI agents to connect with external tools and services—think of it like HTTP, but for AI-enabled developer workflows. Instead of building custom integrations for every tool, MCP lets you plug into robust server endpoints for databases, code search, deployment pipelines, and more, all through a consistent, secure protocol. With GA support in Vi...
Improving Codebase Awareness in Visual Studio Chat
Smarter Code Search in Visual Studio: From BM25 to Semantic Search In our latest 17.14.11 release, we’ve made a significant leap forward in how we explore your code to retrieve meaningful context. Our new Remote Semantic Search integration helps you find exactly what you need faster and with greater precision than ever before. By embedding Remote Semantic Search directly into the Visual Studio Copilot code search experience, we’ve combined the power of traditional keyword search (BM25) with the deep contextual understanding of cutting-edge AI models. This means your searches go beyond just matching words, t...
From Redmond to San Diego: VS Live! Highlights, Session Examples, and What’s Next
There’s something special about hosting developers at Microsoft HQ — and this year’s Visual Studio Live! Redmond reminded me why I love these events. The energy in every room was electric. From the moment the first session kicked off, developers leaned in, asked smart, challenging questions, and took every opportunity to connect with the Product Managers and engineers from Visual Studio, Azure, and GitHub Copilot. Between sessions, the hallways were buzzing. Right after the Experts Meet & Greet, one speaker shared a story that stuck with me: “A customer came up to me and said: All those paper cuts that Ma...
GPT-5 Now Available in Visual Studio
We’re excited to share that GPT-5, OpenAI’s latest frontier model, is now rolling out in GitHub Copilot for Visual Studio. GPT-5 offers faster responses and even better performance for writing and understanding code. This release brings a new level of capability to your development workflow, making it easier to move from idea to implementation. Try it now: Click the Copilot badge in your IDE, open Chat, and select GPT-5 (Preview). Why GPT-5 Matters to you GPT-5 is OpenAI’s most advanced model to date. It delivers substantial improvements in: From building end-to-end features to understand...
Visual Studio 2015 Retirement: Support reminder for older versions of Visual Studio
Support for Visual Studio 2015 will end on October 14, 2025. If you’re using an older version of Visual Studio, we want to keep you productive and secure when using Visual Studio, and strongly recommend you upgrade to Visual Studio 2022, which brings the power of Copilot to your development workflow. It also contains key productivity improvements in the editor, built-in support for Git version control and rich integration with GitHub, AI-powered code completions, and tools for .NET 8 and 9, and .NET MAUI. Support Timeframe Reminders for older versions If you’re still using an older version of Visual Studio, her...
Smarter AI Edits in Visual Studio Copilot
When we first set out to get smarter AI edits in Visual Studio Copilot, we knew we were tackling a deeply complex problem. It wasn’t just about generating great suggestions—it was about figuring out how to seamlessly apply those suggestions to your code. While the idea seemed simple at first glance, the reality was anything but. The Complexity of Implementing AI-Generated Edits Let’s rewind to our early attempts. Copilot might give you a fantastic suggestion—a new method, a helpful refactor, or maybe even a corrected logic block. But the real challenge began when we tried to insert those changes into th...
Watch Live: Visual Studio Toolbox at VS LIVE! Redmond 2025
Join Robert Green and Leslie Richardson for a full day of live sessions, demos, and interviews. Live from Microsoft HQ – Stream Tuesday’s Sessions with Visual Studio Toolbox! On Tuesday, August 5, join us for a special edition of Visual Studio Toolbox Live—broadcast from VS LIVE! Redmond and hosted by Leslie Richardson and Robert Green. You’ll get a full day of Microsoft-led sessions, live studio commentary, behind-the-scenes interviews, and exclusive insights straight from campus. 👉 Click here to set a YouTube reminder so you don’t miss a moment. 🎤 What You’ll See on Tuesday We’re streaming five sessions ...
Fresh Learning Paths Now Available on Pluralsight for VS Subscribers
We’ve been thrilled to see so many of you jump back into your Pluralsight benefit after our April 3rd announcement about extended access. Your enthusiasm for learning and leveling up with Visual Studio inspires us every day. If you haven’t had a chance to dive in yet—or want to explore what’s new since then—I wanted to share an update on some exciting new courses and paths that we think you’ll find especially valuable. More Time to Learn, More Ways to Grow Visual Studio developers on a paid Professional or Enterprise subscription unlock exclusive learning opportunities—Professional subscribers receive 6 months ...