Visual Studio Blog

The official source of product insight from the Visual Studio Engineering Team

Featured posts

Announcing a free GitHub Copilot for Visual Studio
Jan 23, 2025
12

Announcing a free GitHub Copilot for Visual Studio

Rhea Patel
Rhea Patel

We're excited to announce an all new free plan for GitHub Copilot, available for everyone today in Visual Studio. All you need is a GitHub account. No trial. No...

Copilot#GithubcopilotCopilotFree

Latest posts

Enhanced Change Signature in C++
Jan 13, 2025
4

Enhanced Change Signature in C++

Mryam Girmay
Mryam Girmay

Change Signature allows you to modify a function's parameters, including reordering, adding, removing, or altering them across various locations. Previously, the Change Signature feature in Visual Studio involved multiple clicks and nested pop-up windows. In Visual Studio 2022 version 17.12, we've reduced the number of clicks and eliminated these nested steps to streamline the process. Simplified Process with Intuitive Interface We have updated the user interface for the Change Signature feature based on direct feedback we received from C++ developers to reduce the number of clicks and pop-up windows. It al...

Benchmarking with Visual Studio Profiler
Jan 7, 2025
13

Benchmarking with Visual Studio Profiler

Nik Karpinsky
Nik Karpinsky

In Visual Studio 17.13 Preview we have released our updated BenchmarkDotNet diagnosers, allowing you to use more of the tools in the performance profiler to analyze benchmarks. With this change it is super quick to dig into CPU usage and allocations of benchmarks making the measure, change, measure cycle quick and efficient. Benchmarking a real project So, to show how we can use the tools to make things better let's go ahead and benchmark a real project. At the time of writing this article, CsvHelper is the 67th most popular package on Nuget.org with over 9 million downloads of the current version. If we can be...

Unlocking insights with Meter Histogram in the profiler
Jan 6, 2025
3

Unlocking insights with Meter Histogram in the profiler

Harshada Hole
Harshada Hole

Are you struggling with performance bottlenecks in your applications? Look no further! Visual Studio 2022 introduces the Meter Histogram feature in its performance profiling suite, providing you with the tools to analyze and visualize histogram data like never before. The Meter Histogram is a key enhancement to Visual Studio's performance profiling suite. This feature enables you to capture and analyze histogram data generated by various performance instruments, offering clear insights into the distribution of your application's data. By visualizing this data, you can easily identify patterns and anomalies...

Dock the Code Search window in Visual Studio 2022
Dec 31, 2024
8

Dock the Code Search window in Visual Studio 2022

Leah Tran
Leah Tran

Ever felt frustrated with the search window cluttering your workspace? The latest feature in Visual Studio 2022 gives you more control over the behavior of the Code and Feature Search window, making your search experience smoother and more efficient. Some users have shared that the search window feels intrusive, interrupting your work by appearing mid-screen or on the wrong screen and taking up precious screen real estate. You now have the option to turn the search window into a tool window and dock it where you’d like. Choose how you want your search window Visual Studio now allows you to dock the searc...

Go to line anywhere with Code Search for Visual Studio 2022
Dec 30, 2024
6

Go to line anywhere with Code Search for Visual Studio 2022

Leah Tran
Leah Tran

Finding the exact line of code where an issue is occurring can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Whether you are debugging an error on line 43 of a file or diving into a specific section of code, you can efficiently jump to the right places with this newest addition to Code Search. In Code Search, you can now jump to a specific line in the current file or another file, making it faster and easier to move around your codebase. Navigate to a line in the current document No need to scroll endlessly to find a specific line. With the updated Code Search, you can swiftly jump to any line in the current...

Connect securely to your Azure resources
Dec 24, 2024
1

Connect securely to your Azure resources

Brady Gaster
Brady Gaster

Visual Studio 2022's Connected Services features are being updated to help you start secure. In the past, for example with Azure Storage, we’d inject the entire connection string into your configuration. With this update, we’ve removed the secrets from the UX – and from what we save to configuration – altogether. This means your code has fewer secrets in it, so you won’t push those into your source control repository inadvertently. Integrated authentication, by default Prior to this update, Connected Services would inject secret-inclusive connection strings for resources like Azure Storage into your secrets...

Security updates to Azure publishing from Visual Studio
Dec 23, 2024
2

Security updates to Azure publishing from Visual Studio

Brady Gaster
Brady Gaster

Visual Studio 2022 introduces a new feature to improve the security of publishing applications to Azure App Service. This feature is designed to disable Basic Authentication and enable integrated security for a more secure publishing process. Basic Authentication has been identified as a less secure method for managing app deployments. Visual Studio 2022 addresses this issue by offering you an option to disable Basic Authentication, which enhances security by using integrated authentication. The problem with Basic Authentication Basic Authentication involves sending user credentials in a format that is n...

GitHub Copilot Free is here in Visual Studio
Dec 18, 2024
25

GitHub Copilot Free is here in Visual Studio

Rhea Patel
Rhea Patel

If you haven’t already heard, GitHub just announced Copilot Free! And great news: you can already start using Copilot Free right now in Visual Studio. It's available now, and we're putting the finishing touches on a more streamlined experience in January. We’re excited to bring these benefits to the entire Visual Studio family. With Copilot Free, you’ll have AI-powered tools right at your fingertips—smarter debugging, AI generated commit messages, AI-breakpoint placement, and of course, direct access to Completions, Chat, and much more. Developers have seen a 25% speed increase with Copilot—and now you can exp...

Refresh your Find results
Dec 17, 2024
8

Refresh your Find results

Leah Tran
Leah Tran

Are you tired of having to repeatedly launch the Find window in Visual Studio to update your search results? Whether you've just refactored some code or pulled recent changes, having to redo a search to get updated results is no longer necessary. With the new refresh option, you can now update your Find results without the hassle of starting over. The Refresh search results button in Visual Studio 2022 will save you time and effort when searching through your code. Refresh your previous Find No more friction when updating your earlier Find results! After completing a Find, you can click the clockwise arr...