Visual Studio Insiders release notes

Copilot adapts pasted code to your file's context, so you spend less time fixing names, formatting, and minor errors.

Pasting code usually means cleanup - renaming symbols, fixing errors, adjusting formatting, or translating between languages.

Adaptive paste does that work for you. It analyzes where you paste and suggests code that fits your file. You can use it to:

• Fill in missing interface or abstract members.
• Fix small mistakes.
• Apply consistent styling and formatting.
• Translate between human or programming languages - for example, C++ to C#.
• Continue a pattern or fill in blanks.

For example, if you have a Math class that implements IMath and you paste a Ceiling method, adaptive paste can turn it into Floor if that's still unimplemented.

It also helps with language translation. Here Copilot adapts C++ code into equivalent C# during paste.

How to use it:

1. Paste code normally {KeyboardShortcut:Edit.Paste}.
2. Press Tab when the adaptive paste bar appears to request a suggestion.
3. Review the diff of original vs adjusted code and accept or dismiss.

You can also trigger it directly:

• Press Shift+Alt+V to paste and immediately show a suggestion.
• Use Edit → Paste Special → Paste with Copilot.

Adaptive paste is on by default. You can toggle it in Tools → Options → GitHub → Copilot → Editor → Enable Adaptive Paste.

Get quick help from Copilot with a single right-click from your context menu in Visual Studio.

You can now interact with Copilot directly from your context menu in Visual Studio! This new feature lets you quickly get help from Copilot for common tasks with a single click, without needing to type any prompts.

Currently, there are five Copilot actions available in the context menu, each working differently depending on whether you have code selected:

Try out these Copilot actions and let us know what you think! We would love to hear your feedback and any suggestions for other actions you would like to see in the context menu.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

Rendering Mermaid charts in both the Markdown editor and Copilot Chat.

We are excited to announce that Visual Studio now supports rendering Mermaid charts in the Markdown editor, where you can provide your own Mermaid syntax or have Copilot generate it for you! This new feature lets you visualize complex data structures and workflows directly within your code editor. For example, you can create flowcharts and diagrams in a Markdown file using Mermaid syntax, and they will be automatically rendered in the preview.

If you have Mermaid syntax ready in a Markdown file, you can preview it by clicking the Preview button in the top left corner of the editor. The Mermaid chart will be rendered in the preview pane, allowing you to see the visual representation of your data.

You can also ask Copilot Chat to generate charts and diagrams to help explain complex codebases or logic with visual aids. Copilot will respond with the generated Mermaid syntax, which you can preview directly to view the rendered diagram.

Please give it a try and generate a Mermaid chart today! We would love to hear your feedback and any suggestions for improving this feature.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

Discover advanced options for maximizing your editing experience with new margin capabilities.

Developers rely on subtle cues and quick context to stay in flow, and the editor's bottom margin is a key part of that. But until now, it offered limited insight and little flexibility - leaving useful information just out of reach.

We've upgraded the bottom margin to be more informative and customizable. Line, column, and character position are now unified into a single display - and clicking it opens the Go To Line dialog for faster navigation. When working with multiple selections, you'll see total counts for selections, characters, and lines. Hovering over the selection margin reveals detailed info per selection.

File encoding is now displayed in the margin for quick reference. You can also save or reopen a file using a specific encoding, which helps ensure proper display of special characters, supports multiple languages, and maintains consistent readability across systems.

Clicking the encoding margin opens a context menu where you can choose to save or reopen the file. Selecting an option will launch an encoding dialog with a dropdown list of available encodings to choose from.

A new context menu has been added to the margin, giving you full control over what information is shown. This menu includes all the bottom margins in the editor, from the Zoom control all the way to the new encoding margin.

You can manage these settings through Tools → Options → Text Editor → General → Display → Show editing context in the editor. For quicker adjustments, right-click the bottom margin to open the new context menu and change what's shown without leaving your flow.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

Skip the noise by excluding files you never need to search.

Some files you just never need to look through. Whether it's build artifacts, minified scripts, or generated files, they clutter your search results and slow you down.

You can now exclude them from your searches in Find in Files and Quick Find to focus on what matters.

To set it up, go to Tools → Options → Environment → Search, and look for the new Exclude files from search results section. There, you can add, edit, or remove glob patterns to control exactly which files are left out of your search results.

These exclusions are automatically applied in Quick Find.

For Find in Files, these exclusions are applied in addition to your existing selection in the File types. You can choose to easily toggle the settings level exclusions on or off via the toggle button on the right of the File types.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

Use Ctrl+W to close tabs and Ctrl+P for code search - shortcuts that match what you're used to from other editors.

We've added new shortcuts to match what you're used to from other editors and browsers, making Visual Studio feel more intuitive right out of the box.

What's new

• Ctrl+W now closes the current tab (in addition to Ctrl+F4)
• Ctrl+P now opens Code Search (in addition to Ctrl+T)

These additions align Visual Studio with popular editors like VS Code, making it easier to switch between tools without breaking your muscle memory. Your existing shortcuts still work exactly as before.

Note for C# developers

The Ctrl+W shortcut wasn't added to the C# developer profile due to existing conflicts. If you want to use Ctrl+W to close tabs in C#, you'll need to manually remap it in Tools → Options → Environment → Keyboard.

Part of a broader effort

This continues our work to make Visual Studio shortcuts more consistent with industry standards. We previously added Ctrl+Shift+P to open feature search and Ctrl+/ to toggle line comments to match other editors. We've been gradually adding shortcuts to reduce friction when moving between different development environments, while keeping all the keyboard shortcuts that Visual Studio users rely on.

You can always view or customize shortcuts by going to Tools → Options → Environment → Keyboard.

You can now connect your own language models to Visual Studio Chat, giving you more choice, control, and customization over your AI experience.

You can now connect your own language models to Visual Studio Chat, giving you more choice, control, and customization over your AI experience.

Use API keys from Anthropic, Google, xAI, or OpenAI to try the latest releases, run models that meet your security or performance needs, and switch easily between built-in and custom options.

Getting started:

1. Open the Chat Window → Select Manage Models from the model picker > add your provider and key.

Available for Chat only. Not supported for Copilot Business or Enterprise. Model capabilities vary.

More providers and features are coming soon, helping you build with the AI that works best for you.

Paste a URL in Copilot Chat to pull in page content for better answers.

Ever felt stuck when a topic doesn't seem to be covered in Copilot's training data? Now you can reference URLs in Copilot Chat to provide more context for your questions, helping Copilot give you better responses.

Reference URLs in your questions

Paste a URL in the prompt box and Copilot will pull information from the web. This helps fill in the blanks when Copilot's training data doesn't cover a topic or when you want to reference a specific resource.

For example, you can ask Copilot to help you write a readme.md file based on best practices on GitHub.

Keep in mind that Copilot can only reference the content of the public URL you provide. It won't access any other resources or links on that page or pages behind authentication. Additionally, it can only pull in static HTML content, so if you reference a dynamic page, Copilot won't be able to access the content.

Experience dramatically improved Copilot responses with enhanced context for code search, external symbol understanding, and precise line number referencing!

Copilot Chat keeps getting smarter with improved context for your everyday tasks! You can expect better results when searching your codebase, understanding dependencies with external symbols, and referencing specific lines in your code.

Improved code search

Copilot Chat's code search capabilities have been enhanced to provide more relevant results. This means you get more accurate suggestions because Copilot is even better at retrieving the right code snippets related to behaviors, concepts, or functionality described in natural language. These improvements are thanks to leveraging remote indexes of your codebases.

Awareness of external symbols

Now Copilot Chat can extend beyond your project to help you with external symbols brought in by your dependencies in C#. With this broader scope of understanding, it can provide you with more effective solutions for your projects.

Better accuracy with line numbers

When you reference a specific line in your code, Copilot Chat will now provide more accurate responses. This means that when you ask Copilot to look at a certain section of the code in natural language, it will be able to give you more precise information.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

An AI profiler agent that analyzes performance, suggests fixes, and helps you iterate fast.

We are excited to introduce the Profiler Agent in Visual Studio: an AI assistant that helps you understand and fix performance issues without needing to be a profiling expert.

The Profiler Agent works alongside GitHub Copilot to:

• Analyze CPU usage, memory allocations, and runtime behavior
• Surface performance bottlenecks
• Generate new BenchmarkDotNet benchmarks or optimize existing ones
• Suggest and help apply optimizations
• Validate improvements in a guided loop

Getting started is simple. Just ask your question in Copilot Chat (Agent Mode):

• Option 1: Tag @profiler
  Example: @profiler Why is my app slow?
• Option 2: Ask directly without tagging (enable the Profiler Agent in the Select Tools menu)
  Example: Why is my frame rate dropping?

Whether you're new to profiling or a pro, this experience puts AI driven diagnostics at your fingertips. No deep knowledge required - just actionable insights.

Currently supports high CPU usage analysis and .NET object allocations, with more scenarios coming soon.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

Automating unit test fixes from failure to resolution.

The new Debugger Agent streamlines unit test debugging by combining the power of Test Explorer, Copilot Chat, and the Visual Studio debugger into a fully automated workflow.

Here's how it works: when a unit test fails, simply right-click the test and select Debug with Copilot. This invokes the Debugger Agent, which:

• Collects context from your workspace (test code, related source, recent edits).
• Forms a hypothesis about the root cause of the failure.
• Applies targeted code edits based on its analysis.
• Validates fixes by running the test under the debugger.
• Iterates intelligently if the issue persists, refining its hypothesis using debugger insights and repeating the cycle until the test passes.

Once the failure is resolved, the agent provides a detailed summary of its actions and edits, making it easy for you to review and understand the changes. By automating the heavy lifting, the Debugger Agent reduces trial-and-error, shortens feedback loops, and helps you deliver more reliable code faster - all while keeping you in control of the final review.

Debug if-statements faster with inline values and Copilot Insights.

Debugging is all about quickly understanding your code's behavior, and now a new inline experience for if statements in .NET makes that easier than ever. With this update, you no longer need to hover over variables or step through multiple lines to figure out why and if the condition is evaluated to true or false. Instead, Visual Studio displays the evaluation result inline, right next to the condition itself.

And just like existing inline variable and return values, you can hover over the condition and select Analyze with Copilot. It doesn't just show the final outcome, it breaks down the condition into its sub-expressions.

Copilot explains how each part contributed to the overall result, giving you a clear step-by-step reasoning path.

Debug faster with improved F5 performance.

Launching the debugger with F5 is one of the most common workflows in Visual Studio, and now it's faster than ever. We've made targeted performance improvements to reduce the time it takes to launch the debugger, so you can get into your debug session with less waiting and more coding.

In the demo shown below, you can see the difference firsthand: Visual Studio 2026 with .NET 10 achieves startup times up to 30% faster compared to Visual Studio 2022 with .NET 9 when using F5.

These gains come from optimizations in both the debugger and the .NET runtime, delivering a noticeably smoother experience.

One-Click Memory Allocation Optimization for your benchmarks.

Previously, you could trigger CPU optimizations for your Benchmark .NET benchmarks directly from the editor using CodeLens. Now you'll also have a one-click entry point to improve memory allocations for the benchmarks.

No need to manually prompt the Profiler agent; just click the CodeLens above your benchmark and you will see an option to Optimize Allocations with Copilot.

This update makes performance tuning more accessible and seamless, helping you spot and fix allocation issues right where you code.

Profiler Agent's smart summarization with seamless thread continuation.

The latest Profiler Agent update introduces smart summarization with thread continuation, designed to keep your work flowing without hitting token limits. When a chat approaches its token cap, you will be prompted with the option to summarize and continue in a new thread.

The agent automatically generates a concise, context-rich summary of everything important so far and carries it forward into a fresh conversation. Nothing gets lost - critical details, steps, and decisions all come with you.

This update not only reduces token usage, making interactions lighter and faster, but also makes it easier to track progress through quick summaries of the agent's actions. Most importantly, it ensures seamless continuity so you can pick up exactly where you left off without retracing your steps.

Accelerate performance tuning with the new Benchmark project template and built-in profiling support - get insights faster than ever!

Jump into performance benchmarking with a fully integrated BenchmarkDotNet project template that includes built-in support for CPU Usage profiling and Copilot insights.

Add a new project in Visual Studio and select BenchmarkDotNet Project from the Profiling category. Pick your target .NET version and the template aligns automatically.

Visual Studio scaffolds a fully configured project, complete with benchmark setup and CPU diagnosers.

Once you run your benchmarks, the profiler automatically launches a diagnostics session and you can instantly view CPU usage, call tree data, and performance hot paths - with optional Copilot insights - without leaving your IDE.

Profile CPU, analyze File IO, and trace events - now fully supported for CMake projects.

CMake projects now get native support for CPU Usage, Events Viewer, memory usage and File IO tools in Visual Studio - no workarounds, no extra setup. The CPU Usage tool also includes Copilot-powered performance insights, helping you detect and resolve bottlenecks even faster.

Tailored for game developers and performance-critical workflows, this update lets you:

• Identify performance bottlenecks and optimize compute-heavy code with CPU Usage Tool.
• Track runtime events like exceptions, logs, and HTTP requests with Events Viewer.
• Analyze file access patterns, durations, and throughput with File IO Tool.
  

Turn zero-length array insights into action with intelligent Copilot assistance in the .NET Allocation Tool - optimize your memory usage like never before!

The .NET Allocation Tool now integrates Copilot assistance for zero-length array allocations, giving you intelligent, actionable guidance right where you need it most!

When you run the .NET Allocation Tool, the Insights tab will highlight zero-length array allocations - a subtle but often overlooked source of unnecessary memory churn.

Alongside the insight description, you'll see the Ask Copilot button. Click it and Copilot will deliver a detailed analysis of the allocation patterns and suggest concrete code fixes to optimize your memory usage - just like the Copilot auto-insights you already love in the CPU Usage tool!

A cleaner launch page with smarter tool combos and Copilot recommendations.

We've revamped the Profiler Launch Page to make it faster, clearer, and smarter to pick the right tool for your performance investigation.

The redesigned interface has a clean layout with a clear distinction between tools that can run together and those that must run alone - so you always know what's compatible.

Copilot integration provides context-aware recommendations right on the page, helping you choose the best profiler for your scenario. If the default suggestions don't fit, just describe your issue in plain English and Copilot will guide you.

Whether you're new to profiling or a seasoned developer, this upgrade makes it easier to improve your app's performance.

Debug smarter with inline post-return values and Copilot insights.

Visual Studio debugger now displays inline post-return values, showing the actual return values of functions at the point where they're used. This gives you real-time visibility into function behavior without stepping into code or setting up watches, making it faster to catch logic issues or unexpected results.

You can customize what is shown via the right-click context menu, choosing to display returning, returned, or both types of inline values based on your preference.

With GitHub Copilot integration, you can hover over a value and use Ask Copilot to analyze unexpected results, uncover potential root causes, or get suggestions on how to fix issues - all without breaking your flow.

Quickly find text inside long strings while debugging.

You can now search within string values in the Text Visualizer using the new Quick Find feature! Simply press Ctrl+F while the visualizer is open to bring up the search box. Your search terms will be highlighted throughout the string, making it easier to spot important text, errors, or patterns.

Need to read content behind the search box? Hold Ctrl and the search UI becomes transparent, so you never lose sight of the data underneath.

This makes navigating long strings like logs, JSON blobs, or error messages faster and more intuitive during debugging.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

You can now view pull request comments directly in the diff view and see them rendered with Markdown formatting - making feedback easier to read and understand in context.

The pull request experience in Visual Studio just got better.

Inline comments in pull request diff view

By default, your pull request comments appear in the working file view. You can now also see them in the diff, which lets you view the full picture of the changes.

In the diff view, you can see comments alongside the original and updated code. This makes it easier to see exactly what was changed and why. You can also edit the working file directly in this view.

For example, if a comment suggests adding tests after refactoring, seeing the original code in the diff helps you understand which functionality was moved. Having the original code right there in the diff helps you make sense of the comment faster - no need to go hunting for where the method was moved.

Comments in the diff are supported across different file types, including .cs files. Support is expanding, so if you notice comments not appearing in the diff for a particular file type, please report the issue.

Markdown rendering support in pull request comments

Comments now render using Markdown formatting, making it easier to read and format your feedback.

Try it out

Enable this feature via Tools → Options → Preview Features → Pull Request Comments.

Get better GitHub Copilot-powered suggestions for your code changes to help you catch potential issues early and improve your code quality.

Now, with the latest model updates, you can get even better code review comments on your local changes before you even commit!

Same UX with key improvements

1. Enhanced Comment Quality - newer reasoning models mean more insightful and precise code reviews, catching subtle bugs and performance issues that might be overlooked by traditional methods.

2. Optimized Comment Generation - by generating comments for the entire change set at once, rather than file-by-file, you get improved performance and a more comprehensive review.

3. Updated Prompting Techniques - clearer and more direct prompt ensures more accurate and relevant feedback.

Get started

With your Copilot subscription enabled in Visual Studio and the following feature flags enabled, you can see the new sparkle comment button in the Git Changes window. When clicked, Copilot will examine your sets of changes and propose some suggestions inline in your editor.

Ensure you have both of the following feature flags turned on:

• Tools → Options → Preview Features → Pull Request Comments.
• Tools → Options → GitHub → Copilot → Source Control Integration → Enable Git preview features.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation. And take this survey to help make the feature even better.

Reference your commits and changes in Copilot chat.

Copilot Chat now supports referencing your commits and changes in the Git Changes window. You can ask Copilot to summarize your changes, explain a specific commit, and more!

Reference your changes

#changes looks at your uncommitted changes. For example, you can ask Copilot to remind you of what you've done so far by referencing your #changes.

Reference your commits

When you start typing #commit:, Copilot will pull up a list of the most recent commits for you to select from. If there's an older commit you want to reference, you can also reference its specific commit id.

Then you can ask the chat to use the commit for tasks like write unit tests to cover changes in this commit or find potential issues in this commit.

Try this out

Ensure the following feature flag is turned on to be able to use these references: Tools → Options → GitHub → Copilot → Source Control Integration → Enable Git preview features.

Code reviews are even easier now with the updated comment list view.

Reviewing your code before committing just got easier.

When you view the Copilot generated comments on your uncommitted changes, you will now see a list of comments in the Git Changes window. You can double click on any comment in the list to navigate to that line of code in your editor.

Stay tuned for the comment list coming to pull requests!

Get started

With your Copilot subscription enabled in Visual Studio and the following feature flags enabled, you can see the new sparkle comment button in the Git Changes window. When clicked, Copilot will examine your sets of changes and propose some suggestions inline in your editor.

To use the local code review, ensure you have both of the following feature flags turned on:

• Tools → Options → Preview Features → Pull Request Comments.
• Tools → Options → GitHub → Copilot → Source Control Integration → Enable Git preview features.

📣 Take this survey to help make the feature even better.

The legacy work items experience in Team Explorer is being replaced with a new, more modern experience.

The legacy work items experience in Visual Studio's Team Explorer has been deprecated. Going forward, work items will no longer open inside Visual Studio but instead in the web portal, where you'll find a modern, more consistent experience. This change aligns with the updates introduced in Visual Studio 2019 and 2022 and ensures that all work item features are available through the web experience.

For more details, see the blog post on work items in Visual Studio.

Skip the copy-paste - apply human or AI-suggested code edits directly in your IDE.

Got a comment asking for a code change?

You can now apply suggested edits directly from the PR comment within the IDE, no need to copy and paste! View the original code, the proposed change, and surrounding context all in one place, so you can evaluate, tweak, and test the fix immediately.

Apply suggested change from a PR comment

Similar to browser PR experiences, you can now instantly apply comment suggestions to your code. Simply click on the sparkle icon at the top right of a comment to incorporate the suggestion to your code, which you can then modify and test as needed before committing.

Request a suggested change from Copilot

If there aren't any suggestions, then you can request Copilot to suggest a change based on the comment. It'll take into account the comment itself and the document context.

Get code suggestions before you commit

Copilot can also suggest code edits based on comments from the local code review experience, helping you resolve feedback and get it commit-ready faster.

Get started

To try out the full experience, ensure you have both of the following feature flags turned on:

• Tools → Options → Preview Features → Pull Request Comments.
• Tools → Options → GitHub → Copilot → Source Control Integration → Enable Git preview features.

Never lose track of files again! Copilot intelligently detects your intent and suggests better matches when you search in Visual Studio.

Ever forget the name of a file while coding? The new Did You Mean feature in Visual Studio 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.

Did You Mean works seamlessly with All-In-One Search, which you can access by pressing Ctrl+Shift+P. 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 whether the search results are empty or when the top result isn't what you intended.

Did You Mean speeds up your search experience by reducing the time spent correcting typos or trying to remember the correct name - making your search experience easier and more intuitive!

Did You Mean (preview) is now available in Visual Studio and automatically enabled for all applicable users. Currently, this feature works with public GitHub repositories, and we're actively working to expand its reach in future updates. Give it a try today and let us know what you think! You can also change the option in Tools → Options → GitHub → Copilot → Search → Enable 'Did You Mean' code search support in All-In-One Search (preview).

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

Code coverage is now available in Visual Studio Community and Professional editions for the first time - ensuring your code is well-tested has never been easier!

You can now analyze which parts of your code are exercised by tests directly from within the IDE! This feature was previously only available in the Enterprise edition, but is now available in Community and Professional editions, making it easier than ever to ensure your code is well-tested.

What's new

• Built-in code coverage tools help you understand test effectiveness by showing how much of your code is covered by unit tests and other coded tests.
• CI/CD integration allows automated coverage tracking as part of your continuous integration workflows.

How to use it

1. From the Test menu, select Analyze Code Coverage for All Tests to run coverage on your test suite.
2. You can also right-click within the Test Explorer to run code coverage for selected tests.
3. Results will appear in the Code Coverage Results window, showing percentages for each assembly, class, and method.
4. Visual Studio highlights tested lines directly in the editor, so you can quickly spot what's covered and what's not.

This feature brings a crucial tool to more developers, helping you ship with greater confidence.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

Visual Studio now features a refreshed interface aligned with the Fluent UI design system. This update introduces a modern, cohesive aesthetic across the IDE, improving usability, accessibility, and visual clarity.

The Visual Studio IDE has been updated to align with the Fluent UI design system, delivering a more modern and cohesive look and feel. These changes enhance usability and accessibility while preserving familiar workflows.

In addition to the updated design language, we've introduced 11 new tinted themes to give users more control over the appearance of their development environment.

We're also introducing a new Editor Appearance setting that focuses specifically on the editor's look and feel. This setting can be used to match the overall IDE theme, but it also works independently, allowing users to customize their coding environment without needing to align with the broader IDE.

Finally, we've redesigned the iconography to be more visually appealing and easier to recognize, improving navigation and overall user experience.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

The new settings experience brings a streamlined, user-friendly interface to Visual Studio, replacing Tools > Options with a modern design, smarter organization, and enhanced reliability.

The modern settings experience is now the default, replacing the legacy Tools → Options dialog. This updated platform gives you a Fluent-aligned UI, centralized registration, and improved persistence, bringing clarity, consistency, and extensibility to your configuration workflow.

Your settings will carry forward from older Visual Studio versions with roaming support. However, settings will no longer sync back to older products - this ensures forward compatibility and a cleaner migration path.

Most commonly used settings have already moved to the new platform. You can still access remaining settings through legacy links, ensuring continuity while you transition to the new experience.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

You can now use GitHub Copilot and the Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit to build, personalize, and debug your M365 apps and agents faster.

You can now use GitHub Copilot to elevate your Microsoft 365 app and Copilot agent development!

• GitHub Copilot Extension for Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit: Get natural language prompts, recommended templates, intelligent guidance, and instant troubleshooting. Just @mention the extension in Copilot Ask Mode. For more details, check out the blog: Preview the GitHub Copilot extension for Teams Toolkit.

• MCP Server for Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit: Unlock advanced AI-driven workflows in Copilot Agent Mode. Add new AI-powered features to your Microsoft 365 app and Copilot agent using the Teams AI library and Agents SDK. Learn more in the blog: Build Smarter with the Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit MCP Server.

You can quickly build, personalize, and debug your M365 apps and agents with Copilot by your side.

Teams agents and app templates upgraded to Teams AI Library V2

All Teams agents and Teams app project templates now use the new Teams AI Library V2.

These updated templates let you:

• Connect to Large Language Models (LLMs) like OpenAI or Azure OpenAI without changing your core bot logic.
• Connect to external data sources so your apps stay current and responsive.
• Use adaptive cards, expressive emojis, and rich interactive elements that feel native in Teams.

You can now create fully functional Teams agents faster, enjoy a smoother development experience, and deliver user experiences that feel truly native.

Important information about the upcoming Cloud Services (Extended Support) retirement and migration guidance to help you prepare.

The Cloud Services (Extended Support) deployment model will retire on March 31, 2027. Consequently, the supporting Cloud Services tooling will become unavailable in the latest Visual Studio after this date.

Until March 31, 2027, Cloud Services (Extended Support) tooling will remain functional in Visual Studio 2022, with general maintenance provided. We strongly advise that you begin planning your migration now to guarantee a seamless transition.

For additional information and detailed instructions on migrating your apps to modern Azure services, please refer to the official announcement.

Service Fabric tools move out of the box - install them as a VS extension.

Service Fabric tools are no longer included in Visual Studio. You can install the Service Fabric Tools for Visual Studio extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace instead, which will be available soon.

Support for .NET 10 and C# 14 is baked in so you can take advantage of the latest features and improvements in your projects.

We're excited to bring you full support for .NET 10 and C# 14 in this latest version of Visual Studio! This means you can immediately start taking advantage of all the newest language features, performance improvements, and framework enhancements without any additional setup or configuration.

The integration is seamless - simply create a new project targeting .NET 10 or update your existing projects, and you'll have access to all the latest C# 14 language features right in the editor. IntelliSense, debugging, and all your favorite productivity tools work perfectly with the new syntax and APIs. Whether you're building web applications, desktop apps, or cloud services, you can leverage the cutting-edge capabilities that .NET 10 brings to the table.

Visual Studio's compiler and tooling have been updated to provide full support for C# 14's new language constructs, ensuring you get accurate syntax highlighting, error detection, and code completion. This tight integration means you can be confident that your development experience will be smooth and productive as you explore what's possible with the latest version of the .NET platform.

Ready to get started? Create a new project and select .NET 10 as your target framework, or upgrade your existing projects to begin using these exciting new capabilities today!

Faster, more reliable Razor Hot Reload with auto-restart support for rude edits.

Improved Hot Reload performance & reliability for Razor files

Thanks to co-hosting the Razor compiler inside the Roslyn process, editing a .razor file during Hot Reload is much faster and more efficient (addressing prior feedback where Blazor Hot Reload could take tens of seconds). This change also increases overall reliability when using Hot Reload.

To enable co-hosting go to Tools → Options and search cohost, which should show the feature Use Roslyn Cohost server (requires restart). After enabling this, it's recommended to restart Visual Studio to ensure it's enabled.

Fewer blocked edits (reduced 'rude edits')

We've expanded what code changes are allowed during Hot Reload. Several edits that previously triggered a rude edit (changes that require a rebuild and restart) are now applied seamlessly. Some examples of edits that are no longer a rude edit include:

• Renaming a file
• Editing code that has lambdas with default parameter values
• Editing property accessors with the field keyword

Auto-restart on 'rude edits'

Hot Reload can now automatically restart the app's process when an unsupported change ('rude edit') is made, instead of ending the entire debug session. To enable this, edit your project file to contain this property declaration

<PropertyGroup>
  <HotReloadAutoRestart>true</HotReloadAutoRestart>
</PropertyGroup>

You can also set this in a Directory.Build.props file. This streamlined auto-restart kicks in for project types where a quick process restart is feasible (e.g. certain Aspire or web projects), so you can continue debugging with minimal interruption.

This is a process-based restart. If you are debugging 4 projects, only the changed project(s) (and any dependent project) will get rebuilt and restarted.

Faster and smarter Razor editor in Visual Studio, cohosting boosts speed/reliability and much more.

Here's a list of notable improvements to the Razor editor:

Performance & Reliability (Cohosting)

The Razor compiler and tooling experience now runs cohosted inside Roslyn LSP server, greatly speeding up Razor file updates (e.g. Hot Reload changes apply much faster) and improving reliability during editing.

To enable co-hosting go to Tools → Options and search cohost, which should show the feature Use Roslyn Cohost server (requires restart). After enabling this, it's recommended to restart Visual Studio to ensure it's enabled.

Simplify Tag Code Action (Community Contribution)

Added a new code fix to convert an empty component tag into a self-closing tag when no content or required child elements are present (contributed by Peter Juhasz). For example <Component Attribute="Value"> </Component> can be simplified to <Component Attribute="Value" />

Extract Style Block to .razor.css

You can now use a code action to extract an inline <style> section from a Razor component into a separate .razor.css file. This helps isolate component-specific styles Blazor's CSS Isolation by automatically creating or updating the matching .razor.css file for the component.

@bind:event IntelliSense

Improved Razor IntelliSense to provide completion suggestions for @bind:<event> values (contributed by Peter Juhasz). When using two-way data binding with custom events (for example, @bind="Value" @bind:event="oninput" in Blazor), the editor now autocompletes valid event names like oninput or onchange.

Formatting Improvements

The new Razor formatting engine received numerous bug fixes and enhancements. Razor editor now better honors C# formatting style options (e.g. spacing, indenting rules from Visual Studio configuration) inside Razor files and resolves various formatting quirks that existed in previous versions (especially around mixed HTML/C# content).

Debugging Tooltip Enhancements

Improved the debugger hover tooltips in Razor files. Visual Studio now more reliably displays variable values and object previews when you hover over variables or components in a Razor file during a debugging session, making it easier to inspect data at runtime.

Go To Definition for Tag Helpers

Leveraging new capabilities from cohosting, you can now navigate to the definitions of ASP.NET Core MVC Tag Helpers and their attributes directly from Razor files. Hitting F12 (or Ctrl+Click) on a Tag Helper (e.g. an <input asp-for=" "> or any MVC Tag Helper usage) will jump to its source definition. This long-requested feature makes it much easier to explore and understand Tag Helpers in your projects.

General IntelliSense Fixes

Addressed several Razor editor IntelliSense issues. HTML snippets (like typing div + Tab to expand a <div> block) now appear consistently in Razor files (previously they sometimes failed to show up). Autocomplete for hyphenated attributes and component parameters (e.g. data-* attributes or Blazor component parameters with dashes) is more robust, so suggestions and completions work as expected in these cases.

Razor Compiler Optimizations

Introduced significant compiler performance and memory usage improvements for Razor and Blazor projects. Solutions with many Razor components should see faster builds and less memory overhead. These optimizations make editing and building Razor pages snappier, addressing prior feedback about high memory usage and slow incremental builds in large Blazor apps.

GitHub Copilot app modernization now built into Visual Studio.

The GitHub Copilot app modernization agent is an AI-powered tool in Visual Studio that helps you upgrade .NET applications to newer versions and migrate them to Azure.

How to get started

1. Open your .NET project or solution in Visual Studio.
2. Launch the modernization agent using one of the following methods:
   • Right-click the solution or project in Solution Explorer and select Modernize, or
   • Open the Copilot Chat window and type @modernize followed by your upgrade request.
3. Let the @modernize agent know what you'd like to upgrade or migrate.

With the app modernization agent, it's easier than ever to keep your .NET apps up to date and take advantage of the latest Azure features. Give it a try and see how much time you can save!

The MSVC Build Tools now require Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 as the minimum supported operating systems.

The MSVC Build Tools have updated their minimum supported operating systems. With this release, the Build Tools no longer support targeting:

• Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012
• Windows 8.1 / Windows Server 2012 R2

To build applications using the latest C++ tools, your target platform must be Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 (or later).

These changes allow for better performance, enhanced security, and alignment with the most recent Windows platform capabilities.

Notices of removals for C++AMP, ARM32 toolchain, and /DEBUG:FASTLINK and deprecation of /await.

The deprecations and removal of C++ feature support impact developers using C++AMP, ARM32-targeting MSVC build tools, and the /DEBUG:FASTLINK linker option. If you're utilizing /DEBUG:FASTLINK, it's recommended to switch to /DEBUG:FULL for improved debugging support. Developers needing to target ARM32 can continue using the Visual Studio 2022 v143 build tools as detailed in this Microsoft blog post.

Moreover, the /await switch is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Developers are encouraged to use Standard C++ coroutines, available by default in C++20 or later. For projects in earlier language modes, consider using /await:strict to maintain compatibility until the switch is removed.

Fresh standard library improvements - especially around <regex>. See what's new.

We've made a large set of updates and improvements to our C++ standard library implementation, especially in the area of <regex>. See our STL Changelog for a complete list of changes.

Substring search in the Class View.

The Class View window now supports substring searches.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

Use C++20 by default in new C++ projects.

Many of the C++ project templates have been updated to build with the C++20 standard by default. This includes the Console App, Windows Desktop Application, Dynamic-Link Library, and Static Library.

C++ attributes now shine in your editor with beautiful syntax highlighting that makes your code more readable and visually appealing!

C++ attributes are now beautifully colored in the editor, making your code more visually distinctive and easier to read! By default, they use the same theme color as user-defined types, seamlessly integrating with your existing color scheme.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

Supercharge your C++ code analysis with enhanced clang-tidy configuration options for faster builds and custom workflows.

clang-tidy code analysis has some exciting new configuration options! You can now allocate more processors to run code analysis as part of your build, speeding up your development workflow. Plus, you can add custom arguments to the command line used to invoke clang-tidy, giving you complete control over your analysis setup.

Access these powerful new options from Project Properties → Code Analysis → Clang-Tidy.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

C++ Linux workload renamed to 'Linux, Mac, and embedded development with C++'.

The C++ Linux workload in the Visual Studio installer has been renamed to Linux, Mac, and embedded development with C++. This more accurately reflects its expanded capabilities.

The description of the workload has also been updated accordingly.

Easily set debugger command line arguments for any C++ project.

The ability to set command line arguments for the debugger from the toolbar has been expanded to include all .vcxproj, CMake, and Unreal Engine projects. The feature has also received the following improvements:

• Go directly to the underlying debugger command line argument setting for your project type.

• A clear indication of an empty command line argument setting that retains your ability to easily identify and locate the toolbar dropdown.

This feature is no longer tied to the Game Development with C++ workload, and is available to all C++ developers without needing to install any additional workloads or components.

Generate preprocessed output for any C++ file.

The Single File Preprocess menu in Visual Studio lets you right-click a C++ file to instantly generate its preprocessed output, making it easy to debug macros and includes, see errors immediately, and avoid manual changes to project settings or interruptions to full project builds.

Added IncrediBuild support for Visual Studio 2026, including the latest IncrediBuild engine and updated extension.

This release contains an update to the IncrediBuild support that includes the latest version of the IncrediBuild engine and an updated extension that works with Visual Studio version 18.0.