Visual Studio Blog

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

Introducing Visual Studio 17.10 – Preview 2 is Here!

We hope you all enjoyed the new and updated features that came with our first preview of Visual Studio 17.10, and now we have even more to share! This release brings additional tools to help you improve your code reviews with Copilot, diagnostics improvements, as well as additional Extensibility and WinForms enhancements. Browse this list ...

A Streamlined Extension Manager comes to Visual Studio 17.9

Over the last year, we’ve been building a better Extension Manager for Visual Studio that makes it easier for you to find and install great extensions. Along the way, we’ve invited Visual Studio Preview users to try out the new design and share their feedback with us. Using all that amazing feedback, we added features, made improvements, ...

VisualStudio.Extensibility: Install extensions without restarting Visual Studio!

The new VisualStudio.Extensibility SDK helps you build extensions that run outside of the main IDE process for improved performance and reliability. With a focus on developer productivity, it features a modern, intuitive .NET Core-based API and solid, well-maintained documentation. This public preview release builds on our previous ...

Last Chance: Visual Studio LIVE! – Las Vegas

Less than 3 weeks to go! Join Us at Visual Studio LIVE! Las Vegas Are you at the forefront of driving business innovation using Visual Studio? With our room block running low, decide today to secure your spot at Visual Studio LIVE! Las Vegas. This event is your prime opportunity to enhance your skills and gain insights into new technologies, ...

A Look Back: Visual Studio’s Profiling Tool Advancements in 2023

In retrospect, the past year our team was on a mission to enhance Profiling tools, making them more efficient and user-friendly. We improved instrumentation and our .NET counter tool, broadened platform support, seamlessly integrated unit test profiling, and boosted overall performance. Your valuable feedback via Developer Community was ...

In the Debugger’s Spotlight: A Year in Review

Reflecting on the past year's journey, our team was on a mission to enhance debugging tools, ensuring they became more efficient and user-friendly. We dedicated our efforts to boosting inner-loop productivity, making external source debugging more seamless, improving overall performance, and optimizing memory analysis. And, of course, we were ...

Visual Studio productivity features in 2023

Over the last year, we’ve invested heavily in new capabilities to help Visual Studio developers code more easily. Let’s look back on some of the additions that aim to make your coding experience more productive. Productivity highlights Here’s a snapshot of some productivity enhancements that shipped in 2023, ranging from versions ...

Unlocking the Secrets of Managed Memory: Dive into Event Handler Leak Insights!

Event handler leaks have been around for a long time, and they are one of the peskiest issues WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) developers regularly deal with. You might be thinking: What makes event handler leaks so important? Event handler leaks are easy to cause, all it takes is to forget to unsubscribe to an event. Additionally, they ...

Visual Studio 17.9 Preview 2 has arrived!

Welcome to the release of Visual Studio 2022 17.9 Preview 2, which wraps up our development efforts for 2023. This update brings new features and enhancements, building on the solid foundation set by Preview 1 in November.  In this preview, we've made some improvements to the C++ and .NET MAUI development experiences. You'll find the...

Embracing SQL Server 2022 with SSDT 17.8: Unveiling Key Updates

In the dynamic landscape of database development, SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) is a powerful tool for database developers in the Visual Studio ecosystem.  SSDT 17.8 is included in the latest version of Visual Studio 2022 v17.8, which was released on November 14th, 2023. This version introduces crucial enhancements and fixes, underscoring...