Visual Studio Blog
The official source of product insight from the Visual Studio Engineering Team
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Visual Studio 2026 Insiders is here!
Visual Studio 2026 Insiders is here - and it marks one of the most ambitious steps forward we’ve taken with the IDE. This release brings AI woven directl...
Latest posts
Introducing Planning in Visual Studio (Public Preview)
Quick prompts are great for small fixes, but they fall short on big projects. You end up rewriting instructions, tweaking them constantly, and hoping the model stays on track. It gives Copilot a visible, structured path to follow, one that updates as it works and keeps you in control at every step. In Agent Mode, Copilot can now create plans that research your codebase, break down big tasks, and run them step by step while iterating along the way. The result is a more predictable and transparent workflow that helps you understand exactly what it’s doing. How It Works Planning uses transparent tool ca...
Modernizing Visual Studio Extension Compatibility: Effortless Migration for Extension Developers and Users
We have great news for extension users and developers: Visual Studio 2026 is introducing an extension compatibility model designed specifically to make your life easier. Our top priority is to ensure that your extensions continue to work seamlessly across Visual Studio releases - with no extra effort required from you. For users: extensions that work in Visual Studio 2022 will just automatically work in Visual Studio 2026. And when upgrading to Visual Studio 2026 the Installer will install most extensions you’re using in Visual Studio 2022. For extension developers, gone are the days of needing to update versi...
Visual Studio Dev/Test Benefit Explained
Before joining Microsoft, I served as VP of Application Development at one of the largest temporary staffing companies in the United States. I’ll never forget the look on our CFO’s face when I told him we needed two to three additional cloud environments to support a large-scale modernization project. His expression went from curious to cautious as he started calculating what that might mean for compute, storage, and database costs. “You want three more cloud environments? Do you have any idea what that’s going to cost us each month?” He wasn’t wrong to ask. Expanding our cloud footprint could easily double our...
Roadmap for AI in Visual Studio (October)
Today, we’re excited to share our public roadmap, which outlines the next steps in evolving Visual Studio with AI-powered agentic experiences. With every month, we aim to deliver smarter, faster, and more intuitive tools that enhance your coding experience. Disclaimer: The items outlined here represent ongoing work for the month. They are not commitments or guarantees for delivery within the current month. Upvote the features you or your organization care about most, so we know what to prioritize. With that said, here is what we are working on! Remote agents We are starting to bring remote agents like the Gi...
VS Live! Orlando – Your Ultimate Learning Adventure
Imagine swapping stories with fellow developers over dinner as the Florida sun sets, then beginning the next morning with a stroll past the resort’s palm-lined walkways before catching your first session across 41 dynamic tracks. From there, immerse yourself in a full day of learning and connection. That’s the magic of Visual Studio Live! at Live 360 Tech Con, November 16–21, 2025, at Universal Orlando’s Royal Pacific Resort. Content-Rich Days, Networking Nights From breakfast to late afternoon, Live! 360 delivers back-to-back sessions, workshops, and labs led by Microsoft product managers and industry ex...
The $150 Secret Hiding in Plain Sight
Picture this: I’m standing in front of 400+ developers at Visual Studio Live! Redmond, right here on the Microsoft campus in Building 33, about to reveal what I call the hidden value of a Visual Studio subscription. I pull up a simple question on the screen: About half the hands go up in the packed Kodiak Auditorium. Good start. "Now, how many have actually logged in and activated your benefits?" The room goes quiet. Maybe 160 hands remain raised. "And how many are using your monthly Azure credits?" I watch as the forest of hands dwindles to just a couple dozen brave souls. The math is staggeri...
Visual Studio September Update – profiler agent, app modernization, and more
The September 2025 update for Visual Studio 2022 (v17.14) is now available. In this month, we are bringing you a fully integrated and game-changing agentic AI experience, from code generation to modernization, profiling, and code reviews. Profiler Agent We’ve heard the feedback loud and clear developers love the Profiler Agent. So, we’re bringing it to Visual Studio 2022 as well. It’s an AI-powered assistant built into Visual Studio that helps you find and fix performance issues without needing to be a profiling expert. The Profiler Agent works with GitHub Copilot to: ...
Enhancements to XAML Live Preview in Visual Studio for .NET MAUI
The XAML Live Preview feature in Visual Studio 2022 version 17.14 introduces a significant usability improvement for .NET MAUI projects: the XAML Live Preview window is now available during design time, eliminating the requirement to initiate a debug session. This change streamlines the UI development workflow for .NET MAUI applications. Design-Time Availability Previously, XAML Live Preview was only accessible while debugging. With this release, you can open the XAML Live Preview window directly during design time. This allows you to see changes in your app UI in real-time. You can also use Hot Reload and othe...
Getting the most out of MCP in Visual Studio with Prompts, Resources, and Sampling
We're excited to announce that Visual Studio now supports MCP prompts, resources, and sampling (with even more coming soon!) to enhance your Copilot experience by bringing in more context from your engineering stack. These powerful new features unlock deeper integrations with your favorite tools and services, making your development workflow more intelligent and context aware. Let’s dive into each of these features and discuss some examples with specific MCP servers that can truly level up your AI-coding experience. MCP Resources and Resource Templates: Access External Data Seamlessly Model Context Proto...