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Visual Studio Blog

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

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Mar 13, 2025

New, Simpler Solution File Format

Nayana Srikanth

For years, you’ve worked with Visual Studio’s solution file (*.SLN) format, and while it’s a core part of your project organization, we know the experience hasn’t always been smooth. Whether you’ve been modifying, maintaining, or trying to resolve merge conflicts, it’s often felt more like a hassle than it should be. We understand your frustrations, and we’re here to talk about why it’s time for a change and how a new solution file format can make your life easier.The ChallengesDespite being a critical element of the Visual Studio ecosystem, the existing solution file format has its share of drawbacks: ...

Mar 12, 2025

Make more sense of multithreaded debugging

Junyu Wang

Debugging complex programs often feels like navigating a labyrinth of threads and stack traces. The challenge of understanding thread behaviors and tracing issues can be daunting, leading to longer development times and increased frustration. But now, there's a solution that simplifies this process—introducing AI-powered thread summaries in Parallel Stacks Window with Visual Studio.To address these challenges, Visual Studio introduces two AI-powered features that make debugging more intuitive: thread summaries and app summarization. These enhancements bring clarity to your debugging workflow by providing con...

Mar 11, 2025

GPT-4o Copilot code completion model available now in Visual Studio public preview

Simona Liao

We are excited to announce that the new GPT-4o Copilot code completion model is now available for GitHub Copilot users in Visual Studio starting in 17.14 Preview 2! This new model, based on GPT-4o mini, has undergone additional training on over 275,000 high-quality public repositories across more than 30 popular programming languages. As a result, developers can expect more accurate suggestions and better performance.Try it out now!For Visual Studio users who have yet to use GitHub Copilot, get started today! There’s even a free plan that includes 2,000 completions and 50 chats per month. You can sign up ...

Mar 10, 2025

Unlock Free Access to Cloud Academy: A New Benefit for Visual Studio Subscribers

Jim Harrer

I’m very excited to share some great news with you! Starting today, if you’re a Visual Studio Professional or Enterprise subscriber, you can get free access to Cloud Academy from QA—no trial, and no credit card required. This exclusive benefit is included with your Visual Studio subscription and provides 12 months of free access to Cloud Academy. Act fast—this is a limited-time offer. Just log in to the Visual Studio subscriptions portal at my.visualstudio.com and activate your free plan.What is Cloud Academy?Cloud Academy, now part of QA, is a premier learning platform that helps developers and IT pros m...

Mar 5, 2025

New Debugging and Profiling Features in Visual Studio (v17.13)

Harshada Hole

The latest Visual Studio update (v17.13) brings a strong set of debugging and profiling features designed to speed up troubleshooting, making it more efficient. With AI-driven features in this release, variable analysis and data inspection are smarter and more intuitive, and problems are easier to identify and debug. Profiling tool improvements also deliver better support and visualization for multi-process execution, native code, and async workflows, with clearer insights into performance bottlenecks. For a full list of debugger and diagnostics features in this release, check out the release notes.GitHub C...

Mar 3, 2025

Great new productivity features in Visual Studio

Mads Kristensen

Sometimes it’s the little things in life that matter the most. In the latest version of Visual Studio, we’ve added some features and tweaks that aim to put a smile on your face and make you more productive. Here is a list of some of these, and if you want the full list, make sure to check out the release notes.Customize file encodingDevelopers working in cross-platform environments often need files to be saved with specific file encodings. Changing these encodings can lead to various issues.Visual Studio now allows you to set the default file encoding for saving files. This feature ensures that your prefe...

Feb 27, 2025

Catch issues before you commit to Git

Jessie Houghton

Discovering issues with code changes after committing changes can be frustrating. Fortunately, Visual Studio offers a new feature that helps you catch potential problems early, improving your code quality.Visual Studio now includes a feature powered by GitHub Copilot that lets you review your local code changes before committing them, before they are part of your pull request. This can help identify performance and security issues early, ensuring you maintain a higher quality codebase.How to Get StartedTo use this feature, ensure your GitHub Copilot subscription is active and enabled within Visual Stu...

Feb 24, 2025

Claude 3.7 Now Available in GitHub Copilot for Visual Studio

Rhea Patel

The world of AI is evolving at a breathtaking pace, and today brings an exciting milestone for developers and tech enthusiasts alike. Anthropic’s newest release, Claude 3.7, is now available directly within GitHub Copilot for Visual Studio 2022 17.13, heralding a new era of seamlessly integrated, advanced AI coding assistance. This new Sonnet model supports the non-thinking modes in Copilot.How to Access Claude 3.7Getting started is easy: If you don’t see Claude 3.7 as an option, there could be two reasons: Learn MoreFor further details, check out the Using Claude Sonne...

Feb 24, 2025

Leverage vision in Copilot Chat

Jessie Houghton

Now, in the preview channel, you can attach images in GitHub Copilot chat to help you illustrate your ideas effectively and get the best responses. Imagine working on a UI development task where describing a design or layout through text just doesn't cut it. Or perhaps you're debugging an issue and need to share a screenshot of an error state or message. Starting in 17.13 Preview channels, you can now paste an image from your clipboard or use the paperclip icon in the chat window to upload your image directly from your file explorer. Simply add your prompt text and send! Copilot will analyze the image and...

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