Visual Studio 2026 is here!

If you haven’t heard the news yet, we’re excited to share with you that Visual Studio 2026 is now generally available! This new version can better assist you with several performance improvements, a redesigned user experience, and a major leap in AI-driven development. Read more about it here and get started with VS 2026 today!

Below updates are all available in Visual Studio 2026 only.

GitHub Cloud Agent Preview is now available in Visual Studio

The Cloud Agent is now in preview and ready to help you offload repetitive or time-consuming work. Enable it via the Copilot badge dropdown → Settings & Options → Coding Agent (Preview).

Note: You’ll need to restart Visual Studio after enabling.  Requires: A solution connected to a GitHub repo.

Once enabled, you can delegate tasks directly from Visual Studio—UI cleanups, refactors, doc updates, multi-file edits, and anything you want Copilot to draft so you can review later.

We’re actively improving this experience, and your feedback is essential. Soon, you’ll see direct PR links inside Visual Studio, so you can review agent-generated changes without breaking your flow.

We’re excited to help you work faster by letting the Cloud Agent handle the tedious parts while you stay focused on building and debugging the core of your project.

Copilot Actions in your Context Menu

We are excited to announce that you can now interact with Copilot directly from your context menu in Visual Studio! With just one click, you can now get Copilot’s assistance with no typing required. Whether you are looking to quickly generate comments or explanations of a class, Copilot is right there when you need it.

Note that “Optimize Selection” requires you to select code to trigger. Copilot will analyze the selected code and its surrounding context, offering targeted suggestions directly in the editor. Copilot will suggest improvements in performance, maintainability, reliability, and architecture.

Copilot Intent Detection for All-In-One Search

Have you ever forgotten the name of a file while coding, and thus couldn’t search or find it easily? The new Did You Mean feature is here to help! When you search using All-In-One Search and Copilot detects a better match than the top result – perhaps because of a typo or a fuzzy memory – it will suggest what you might have meant.

When you type a search term, Copilot analyzes your input and suggests a more relevant term if it finds one that more closely matches your intent. This feature helps with whether the search results are empty or when the top result isn’t what you intended.

Thank you for reading till the end! We will skip the December blog post as we are approaching the end of year and holiday season. See you soon in the January update blog post!