Visual Studio Blog

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

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Agent mode is now generally available with MCP support
Jun 17, 2025
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Post likes count 12

Agent mode is now generally available with MCP support

Rhea Patel Filisha Shah Allie Barry
Rhea,
Filisha,
Allie

Copilot agent mode is the next evolution in AI-assisted development—and it's now generally available in the Visual Studio June update. Agent mode turns GitHu...

.NETVisual StudioGitHub Copilot

Latest posts

Code, Recent Items, and Template Search In Visual Studio
Aug 15, 2019
Post comments count 6
Post likes count 0

Code, Recent Items, and Template Search In Visual Studio

Andrew Cheung
Andrew Cheung

Check out several additions to VS Search in 16.3. We have added the ability to search for code, recently opened items, and templates.

Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3 Preview 2 and Visual Studio for Mac version 8.3 Preview 2 Released!
Aug 13, 2019
Post comments count 13
Post likes count 0

Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3 Preview 2 and Visual Studio for Mac version 8.3 Preview 2 Released!

Jacqueline Widdis
Jacqueline Widdis

Visual Studio version 16.3 Preview 2 and Visual Studio for Mac version 8.3 Preview 2 are available. Because many of the features in this release are a response to Developer Community feedback, we are excited to share our changes. First of all, the latest Preview versions both PC and Mac are available to download from VisualStudio.com. You can also upgrade internally by clicking the notification bell within Visual Studio 2019. Likewise, within the Visual Studio 2019 for Mac IDE, click the Visual Studio > Check for Updates menu item. Our release notes contain many more details, so make sure to take a look. Be M...

Async loaded .NET projects may impact Visual Studio extensions
Aug 8, 2019
Post comments count 13
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Async loaded .NET projects may impact Visual Studio extensions

Mads Kristensen
Mads Kristensen

In Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3, the CSProj project system (C#/VB non-SDK style) introduces a new way of loading called Partial Load Mode (PLM). After the solution loads, the project system is doing design time builds in the background, leaving the UI responsive and interactive. Extensions may need to adjust for this behavior change.

Preview Features in Visual Studio
Aug 5, 2019
Post comments count 7
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Preview Features in Visual Studio

Stephanie Su
Stephanie Su

The Preview Features page under Tools > Options > Environment has a new look! We introduced the Preview Features page so that you can easily find these capabilities and be able to control their enablement. The new layout provides more information and an opportunity to give feedback on the features. While these features are in development, you can disable any of these features if you run into issues.  We also encourage you to provide feedback on the capabilities or any issues you find. Some features you may find on this page includes ones in early development that affect existing functionality, ones that are...

Azure IoT Tools July Update: IoT Edge tooling GA and more!
Aug 2, 2019
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Azure IoT Tools July Update: IoT Edge tooling GA and more!

Jun Han
Jun Han

Welcome to the July update of IoT Tooling! In the release, we have made a lot of features and improvements for our IoT developers! General Availability of IoT Edge tooling Azure IoT Edge was released in the year of 2017. With near two years’ continuous working on the Azure IoT Edge Tooling, we are happy to announce that Azure IoT Edge Tooling is now general available. Azure IoT Edge Tooling includes: ARM64 support in Azure IoT Edge extension for Visual Studio Code With the release of IoT Edge 1.0.8, Azure IoT Edge is supported on ARM64 IoT Edge devices. In the meanwhile, I’m g...

Theming in Visual Studio just got a lot easier
Aug 1, 2019
Post comments count 27
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Theming in Visual Studio just got a lot easier

Mads Kristensen
Mads Kristensen

Sometimes the default themes for Visual Studio just aren’t enough. Lucky for us, we’ve just redesigned the process of creating and importing custom themes.

Status on Visual Studio feature suggestions
Jul 31, 2019
Post comments count 102
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Status on Visual Studio feature suggestions

Mads Kristensen
Mads Kristensen

Visual Studio receives over 500 feature suggestions from customers every month on the Developer Community website. Handling that amount is a huge effort and we’d like to share with you how we handle this volume and the steps that we take to respond to them all.

Visual Studio 2019 version 16.2 Generally Available and 16.3 Preview 1
Jul 24, 2019
Post comments count 60
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Visual Studio 2019 version 16.2 Generally Available and 16.3 Preview 1

Jacqueline Widdis
Jacqueline Widdis

Check out what's new in the 16.2 generally available and 16.3 Preview 1 release of Visual Studio 2019. See the improvements to Test Explorer, search capabilities within the product, C++ linker iteration build times, and .NET Core 3.0

Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.2 is now available (and a Preview for 8.3)
Jul 24, 2019
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Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.2 is now available (and a Preview for 8.3)

Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi
Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi

Today we are announcing the release of Visual Studio 2019 for Mac version 8.2, as well as Preview 1 of version 8.3. We have a lot of new features and updates in both releases that we’d like to share with you! Some of these include the new C#, XAML and AXML editors, support for .NET Core 3.0 Preview and launchsettings.json and many more.