Microsoft Unveils Visual Studio 2026 Preview: AI Integration and Performance Boost

Microsoft previews Visual Studio 2026: Now with deeper AI

New look for Visual Studio but the core still runs on the old .Net Framework Microsoft has released a preview of Visual Studio 2026, the first major version update since 2021, promising deeper AI integration and a new look and feel. Visual Studio is the second most popular IDE after VS Code, so the first major update in five years sounds like a big deal for developers. Visual Studio 2022, also known as version 17.x, was first released in November 2021. The new version will be 18.x. Yet based on the information revealed by principal product manager Mads Kristensen, and The Register's download of the preview, the changes are incremental rather than revolutionary. Changes highlighted by Kristensen include a new logo, the renaming of Visual Studio Preview to Visual Studio Insiders, refreshed UI using Microsoft's Fluent Design system, improved theming with new themes including Mango Paradise and Juicy Plum, and of course deeper AI integration. These are not things that developers care much about, AI aside; but there is more information in a recent presentation on the future of Visual Studio, and in the release notes. VS 2026 has more hooks to enable Copilot to get context and intervene, enabling features such as the profiler copilot agent which will benchmark code, look for potential optimizations, and implement them on your behalf. Another example is adaptive paste, where Copilot will automatically adjust pasted code to fit the context of existing code. URL context in Copilot lets developers reference a URL in the chat, such as asking the AI to follow guidelines in a web document. Visual Studio users will be able to choose their own LLM (large language model). A dropdown enables selection of different models, and developers can apply their own API key for a provider for which they have a subscription, selecting between Anthropic, Google and OpenAI. Settings in VS 2026 are now based on an editable JSON file, and the settings dialog has rich filtering features, such as the ability to see all settings that are not the default. Settings can be checked into source control and travel with a project. Code coverage, which shows how much code is covered by unit tests, and was previously a feature unique to the enterprise edition, has been enabled for VS Community and Professional. Kristensen said that VS 2026 is backward compatible with extensions for VS 2022, which is good news for developers upgrading but perhaps another clue that the changes are not dramatic. The team behind NDepend, a code quality tool for .NET, said that "Visual Studio vNext will remain a 64-bit application, but its main process will still run on the legacy .NET Framework. For extension publishers like us at NDepend, which run partly inside the VS process, this prevents a full migration to .NET 10 and joy with the latest C# language and runtime features." Many of the child processes spawned by the IDE do run on .NET Core, they added. VS 2026 comes with a tool to modernize .NET Framework applications to .NET 10, which will be the current LTS (long term support) version by the time this is released, but it seems that the product itself is still hooked to the old Windows-only .NET. Comments on the YouTube presentation suggest that Microsoft's focus on AI features is not for everyone, and that Microsoft may be missing other aspects that matter. One asked for the focus to shit to "performance improvements and resource efficiency ... even medium size solutions guzzle memory like it's an infinite resource." Kristensen does state that performance is improved but it is too soon to say how much change there is in this area. Another common response is that despite its name, VS is lacking in visual designers, such as for WinUI 3. The most requested VS feature (though closed as "out of scope") is for a Linux version, which raises the question of how VS sits in relation to the ubiquitous VS Code, which is cross-platform. Kristensen said there are now 50 million developers using one of the products in the Visual Studio "family", but the majority of these are using VS Code rather than Visual Studio. Nevertheless, this looks like a promising upgrade. According to Kristensen, the team has fixed 4489 issues and 290 feature requests over the last 12 months, many of these reserved for VS 2026. No release date has yet been given, but we would not be surprised to see this generally available around the same time as .NET 10 in November. ®

Visual Studio 2026 Just Got Its First Preview Release

The first preview release of Visual Studio 2026 has arrived. As you might expect from a new Microsoft product, the big selling point is more AI integration, but there are some great performance improvements and visual tweaks as well for developers to enjoy. Visual Studio is Microsoft's full-featured integrated development environment (IDE), primarily for use with .NET and C++ programming languages, but also supporting other languages. That's not to be confused for Visual Studio Code, which is a lighter text editor and modular IDE for more platforms. Microsoft has now introduced an Insiders Channel for the next major update, Visual Studio 2026. It replaces the Preview Channel that was previously used for public testing. Performance & Design According to Microsoft, Visual Studio 2026 has faster performance than previous releases, especially in large codebases. The blog post explained, "In 2026, the loops you run most - opening solutions, navigating code, building, and pressing F5 - tighten up. You'll notice that first launch feels snappier, big solutions feel lighter, and the time between an idea and a running app keeps shrinking." The speedup should be noticeable across both x86 and ARM-based computers -- initial support for ARM Windows PCs arrived in 2022 with the release of Visual Studio 2022 17.4. There's also a refreshed look and feel that takes some inspiration from the Fluent design language, which is already used across Outlook, Office, and many Windows 11 applications. It has "crisper lines, improved iconography, and better spacing of visual elements," as well as new color themes for customization. This is mostly just aesthetic tweaks, though -- you won't have to relearn where the important menus and buttons are located. Microsoft said in the blog post, "Managing extensions is straightforward, and a plethora of new color themes help your environment feel personal - comfortable for long sessions, focused when the pressure is on, and accessible by default. It's a design that respects your attention and helps you stay oriented, even in the largest solutions." AI Features Of course, it wouldn't be a Microsoft software update in 2025 if there wasn't AI somewhere. Visual Studio 2026 has AI "woven into the daily rhythms of coding," though the functionality is similar to what already exists in Visual Studio 2022 and Visual Studio Code. There's a Copilot Chat in the sidebar where you can ask questions, code suggestions as you type in the editor, automation with AI agents, and other fun stuff. You can more language models from Anthropic, Google, or OpenAI, so you aren't strictly limited to Copilot. However, only the chat features can use a custom model -- code completion will still use Copilot. There's also no option to use a local language model running on your own PC. Most of the AI features listed in this update are already available in Visual Studio 2022, either through updates to GitHub Copilot or other rollouts. Adaptive paste, custom models, and MCP support were added in Visual Studio 17.14, which started rolling out on September 9, 2025. Get Visual Studio 2026 You can download the Visual Studio 2026 Insiders build from Microsoft's website, in the usual Community, Professional, and Enterprise versions. The official system requirements call for a 64-bit x86 or ARM PC, at least 4GB RAM (16GB is recommended), and 2.5GB of drive space. It works on Windows 10 and 11, as well as Windows Server 2019, 2022, and 2025. Source: Microsoft Dev Blogs