"Microsoft has officially launched Visual Studio 2026 (version 18.x), marking what they call the first 'AI‑native' release of its flagship integrated development environment. The general availability rollout follows extensive validation via the Insiders channel and reflects a blend of performance optimisations, deep GitHub Copilot integration, and tooling updates across core languages and workloads. Before this release, developers primarily experienced Visual Studio 2026 through the Insiders channel and previews that emphasised Copilot AI features and incremental productivity improvements."
"Version 18 replaces and supersedes the older Preview channel with a robust, side‑by‑side installable channel alongside stable Visual Studio releases. Under the hood, this release retains compatibility with thousands of extensions from prior Visual Studio versions, lowering the barrier to upgrade for established teams. Visual Studio 2026 ships with a significant performance uplift across large solutions, particularly for .NET codebases."
Visual Studio 2026 (version 18.x) is now generally available after validation via the Insiders channel, offering an AI-native developer environment with deep GitHub Copilot integration. Version 18 replaces the older Preview channel and provides a side‑by‑side installable channel alongside stable releases while retaining compatibility with thousands of existing extensions. The IDE delivers significant performance uplift for large solutions, improving cold start (F5) debugging and solution load responsiveness and reducing UI freezes. A refreshed Fluent UI-aligned interface includes tinted themes and new iconography. Copilot features extend to natural language code assistance, profiling insights, and context-aware debugging.
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