Mads Kristensen introduces Visual Studio 2026 Insiders, highlighting major advances in AI-powered development, improved performance, and a reimagined user experience for professional developers.

Visual Studio 2026 Insiders is here!

Visual Studio 2026 Insiders marks a bold new chapter in Microsoft’s leading IDE, focusing on deeper integration of AI, enhanced performance, and a refreshed look that prioritizes developer productivity.

Key Highlights

AI Integrated Development

AI woven into daily workflow: The new AI features are not standalone add-ons—they are deeply embedded, providing contextual help as you explore new codebases, suggest common tests, and ensure that documentation and comments keep pace with your code.
Assisted code review: The IDE brings actionable insights on correctness, performance, and security before you open a pull request, helping you refine code with greater confidence.
Autonomous adaptation: Tasks like paste-and-fix are streamlined as the editor adapts snippets to your repository’s conventions.
Copilot Free integration: Visual Studio 2026 now offers GitHub Copilot Free, making AI-powered code suggestions available within the IDE for everyone.

Performance Improvements

Enterprise-scale speed: Opening solutions, navigating code, building, and launching (F5) are significantly faster, even on large projects and both x64 and Arm64 architectures.
Profiler Agent: The built-in Profiler Agent helps identify and fix performance issues efficiently, enabling smoother workflows and improved application performance.

Modern Look and Feel

Redesigned UI: The new version features Fluent UI, crisper iconography, refined spacing, and 11 new color themes for improved clarity and focus.
Personalization: Enhanced options and more accessible visual elements make it easier to customize the IDE for any workflow or preference.

The Insiders Channel

The Insiders Channel replaces the previous Preview Channel, letting developers get first access to new features and monthly updates.
Visual Studio 2026 Insiders installs alongside previous versions and supports easy settings import for rapid onboarding.

How to Get Started

Additional Notes

Visual Studio 2026 will receive monthly updates, delivering ongoing performance, design, and AI improvements.
There is a known issue affecting some users; see the linked ticket for details.

Community and Future Directions

Microsoft reiterates their commitment to building Visual Studio with direct feedback from the developer community, thanking contributors and encouraging continued engagement.

Happy coding,

The Visual Studio Team

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