{"id":247314,"date":"2024-04-09T11:24:33","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T18:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/?p=247314"},"modified":"2025-09-16T12:21:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:21:16","slug":"introducing-the-new-copilot-experience-in-visual-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/introducing-the-new-copilot-experience-in-visual-studio\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing the new Copilot experience in Visual Studio"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>GitHub Copilot your AI-powered coding companion is now seamlessly woven into your Visual Studio IDE, enhancing your everyday tasks and bringing you the latest AI-driven coding experiences. Copilot is designed to elevate your efficiency, by offering personalized code suggestions, <a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/see-your-pull-request-comments-with-the-latest-preview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">crafting your git commit messages<\/a>, answering coding-related queries, and <a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/github-copilot-in-visual-studio-a-recap-of-2023\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">much more<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re thrilled to introduce the new, unified <strong>Copilot experience <\/strong>in Visual Studio 17.10, now available in <a href=\"https:\/\/visualstudio.microsoft.com\/vs\/preview\/#download-preview\"><strong>Preview 3<\/strong><\/a> (General availability in May). This combines the features of <strong>Copilot<\/strong> and <strong>Copilot Chat<\/strong> into one convenient package. Eliminating the need to install two separate extensions and bringing you more deeply integrated AI experiences in the future. Activate your GitHub Copilot subscription today, by <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/settings\/copilot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">signing in to GitHub or<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/settings\/copilot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">start a free trial<\/a> for the latest AI experience.<\/p>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 98.0605%; height: 156px;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"height: 156px;\">\n<td style=\"width: 61.2067%; height: 156px; text-align: center;\">\n<h2><strong>See Copilot in action<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 95.3884%; height: 156px;\"><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Lv5so3RCZIs?si=a1QBAVvNfKuFR6iu\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><em>note: Copilot in now in the top right side of your Visual Studio<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>What is GitHub Copilot?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Copilot<\/strong> is your AI-powered coding companion designed to <a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/copilot-chat-slash-commands-and-context-variables\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">enhance your IDE experience<\/a>. It helps you in the following ways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Speeding up your coding tasks<\/strong> with Copilot generated snippet, methods, and even entire programs.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Improve your code quality<\/strong> with Copilot\u2019s optimization feature \u201c\/optimize\u201d in Copilot Chat to improve your code\u2019s performance, readability, and security.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Learn new coding patterns<\/strong><strong>, languages, and frameworks<\/strong> by getting explanations and documentation for the suggested code from Copilot.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Focus on more satisfying and creative work<\/strong> by allowing Copilot to handle the repetitive, boilerplate, or tedious code, and conserving your mental energy and flow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>GitHub Copilot offers an interactive experience throughout Visual Studio, through chat both in a separate window and directly in your code, allowing you to start a conversation or simply begin typing. Copilot provides context-aware code completions, suggestions, and even entire code snippets. It\u2019s like having a pair programmer who can help you, write commit messages, debug your code, generate your unit tests and more. GitHub Copilot serves as a valuable resource for information and answers about your code, including documentation, definitions, references, error explanations, and best practices.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Accessing Copilot<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>If you are a customer in Visual Studio 17.10 Preview:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>If you are using Visual Studio 17.10, GitHub Copilot is included right out of the box<\/strong> as a recommended component and will be installed on update or install<em>. <\/em>\n<ul>\n<li>If you need to install GitHub Copilot later, you can do so from the Visual Studio Installer by search for the &#8220;GitHub Copilot&#8221; component in the \u201cIndividual Component\u201d tab. <strong>Note<\/strong>: If you prefer not to use Copilot installed in your Visual Studio, you have the option to hide the feature by selecting the GitHub Copilot badge and choosing \u201cHide Copilot\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>For Versions 17.8 to 17.9 you will still be able to download &#8220;GitHub Copilot Chat&#8221; and &#8220;GitHub Copilot Completions&#8221; via Extension Manager, however, to get the latest Copilot features update to 17.10.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><div  class=\"d-flex justify-content-center\"><a class=\"cta_button_link btn-primary mb-24\" href=\"https:\/\/visualstudio.microsoft.com\/vs\/preview\/#download-preview\" target=\"_blank\">Get Visual Studio 2022 17.10 Preview<\/a><\/div><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Getting Started<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>To use the new Copilot extension, you\u2019ll need a <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/features\/copilot\/plans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GitHub Copilot subscription<\/a>. GitHub Copilot is free for verified students and for maintainers of popular open-source projects on GitHub. If you\u2019re not a student or a maintainer of a popular open-source project, you can<strong> try GitHub Copilot for free with a one-time 30-day trial.<\/strong> After the free trial, a paid subscription is required for continued use.<\/p>\n<p>Once you have Copilot installed, you can easily sign in and manage your Copilot directly from the top right corner of the title bar in Visual Studio 17.10.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Using Copilot<\/h3>\n<h4><strong>Code Completions<\/strong><\/h4>\n<div>Start writing in the editor and Copilot will suggest code as you type.<span style=\"font-size: 1rem; text-align: var(--bs-body-text-align);\">\ud83d\udca1Tip: press <\/span><code style=\"text-align: var(--bs-body-text-align);\">\"tab\" <\/code><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; text-align: var(--bs-body-text-align);\">to accept a suggestion.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-247314-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" loop autoplay preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/03\/Completions-for-blog-1.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/03\/Completions-for-blog-1.mp4\">https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/03\/Completions-for-blog-1.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h4><strong>Inline Chat<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-align: var(--bs-body-text-align);\">Use Inline Chat will help you write your methods, classes, unit tests by c<\/span>onverting your prompts to code. Open Inline by right-clicking in your text file and selecting &#8220;Ask Copilot&#8221; or <code>Alt + \/<\/code>`<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udca1Tip: Use<code>\"\/\"<\/code> to state your intent or\u00a0<code>\"#\"<\/code> to refer to your files(s). Like <code>\"\/test for #filename\"<\/code><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-247314-2\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" loop autoplay preload=\"auto\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/03\/Recording-2024-01-11-072251.mp4?_=2\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/03\/Recording-2024-01-11-072251.mp4\">https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/03\/Recording-2024-01-11-072251.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div><\/p>\n<h4><strong>Chat Window<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-align: var(--bs-body-text-align);\">Ask questions about your solution or files.\u00a0 O<\/span>pen from the Copilot Badge or <code>CTRL + \/, C.<\/code><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udca1Tip: Use <code style=\"text-align: var(--bs-body-text-align);\">#solution<\/code>\u00a0to refer to your active solution (only for C#) in Visual Studio<\/p>\n<p><div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-247314-3\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" loop autoplay preload=\"auto\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/03\/solution-wide-view-1.mp4?_=3\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/03\/solution-wide-view-1.mp4\">https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/03\/solution-wide-view-1.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>We Value Your Feedback<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>We hope you find the new Copilot experience beneficial for your development needs. Your feedback and suggestions for improvement are always welcome. You can reach out to us through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.surveymonkey.com\/r\/BQ7QDPQ\"><strong>this survey<\/strong> <\/a>or submit for feature requests here: <a href=\"https:\/\/developercommunity.visualstudio.com\/home\">Developer Community (visualstudio.com)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Happy coding! \ud83d\ude80<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GitHub Copilot your AI-powered coding companion is now seamlessly woven into your Visual Studio IDE, enhancing your everyday tasks and bringing you the latest AI-driven coding experiences. Copilot is designed to elevate your efficiency, by offering personalized code suggestions, crafting your git commit messages, answering coding-related queries, and much more. We\u2019re thrilled to introduce the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142353,"featured_media":255385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6887,155],"tags":[6937,1055,6883],"class_list":["post-247314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-visual-studio","tag-githubcopilot","tag-ai","tag-copilot","post_format-post-format-video"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"<p>GitHub Copilot your AI-powered coding companion is now seamlessly woven into your Visual Studio IDE, enhancing your everyday tasks and bringing you the latest AI-driven coding experiences. Copilot is designed to elevate your efficiency, by offering personalized code suggestions, crafting your git commit messages, answering coding-related queries, and much more. We\u2019re thrilled to introduce the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/142353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/visualstudio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}