Windows 10: Visual Studio 2019 v16.4 released

Brink · Dec 3, 2019

Here in Redmond, glimpses of holiday cheer are filling our campus buildings as the season shifts to twinkling lights and frosty temperatures. The Visual Studio team is seizing this time as an opportunity to celebrate the comradery needed to respond to developer needs and suggestions. Equally, we are reflecting over what we can improve in the upcoming year as well as plan product features to deliver.

What is more notable is the generosity flowing within our various Microsoft locations. One primary means of meeting community needs is through our annual Giving Tree program. There are festive trees in every building decorated with ornaments of wish list items for a variety of charitable organizations. Teams and individuals are able to pick favorite tag item and gift them. To increase the impact, Microsoft matches the dollar amount for an additional gift to the charity! With giving in mind, we are anticipating this release of Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4 will fill your wish list item of a more stable, productive development environment. Since we started working on this release in August, we have implemented hundreds Developer Community suggestions and bug fixes. Let’s take a look at what you’ll find in this release.

Install Visual Studio 2019 v16.4

GitHub publishing directly from Team Explorer

We know GitHub integration brings value to your developer experience. Therefore, we are excited to announce a previous extension making its way into the Visual Studio 2019 product. The ability to have GitHub publishing done directly from Team Explorer has been a favorite because of its seamless communication with GitHub repositories. For this reason, local repositories can be synchronized by clicking the Publish to GitHub button on the Team Explorer Synchronization page. This functionality has been a high priority of our teams, so we are eager to hear what you think.

Publish to GitHub from Visual Studio 2019 v16.4

XAML Hot Reload for Xamarin.Forms

Next, XAML Hot Reload for Xamarin.Forms enables you to make changes to your XAML UI and see them reflected live without requiring another build and deploy. This feature significantly speeds up development to make it easier to build, experiment, and iterate on your user interface. Best of all is how much time you can save since you no longer have to rebuild your application for every tweak.

Because your application is compiled using XAML Hot Reload, it works with all libraries and third-party controls, and is available for iOS and Android. Consequently, it works on all valid deployment targets including simulators, emulators, and physical devices. In the event that you are more curious, check out the XAML Hot Reload for Xamarin.Forms documentation detailed by the team members themselves.

Container Tools window

Another addition that started out as an extension in the Visual Studio Marketplace is the Container Tools window. This new tool window enables you to list, inspect, stop, start, and remove Docker images and containers on a local machine. As a result, you can view folders and files in running containers and open a terminal window.

Container Tools Window in Visual Studio v16.4

XAML tooling improvements for WPF and UWP desktop developers

Furthermore, we are continuing to invest in productivity improvements for desktop developers building WPF and UWP applications. New features include IntelliSense support for XAML snippets, a “Just My XAML” filter for the Live Visual Tree, and a merge resource dictionary feature. Also included, is the ability to pop up the code editor view separate from the XAML designer.

Pinnable Properties Tool

We are continuing to improve debugging capabilities in this release. With this in mind, we are delighted to announce how identifying objects by their properties while debugging has just become easier and more discoverable with the new Pinnable Properties tool. In short, hover the cursor over a property you want to display in the debugger of the Watch, Autos, and Locals windows. Click the pin icon. Next, you will see the information you are looking for at the top of your display!

Pin Properties in Debugger shown in Visual Studio 2019 v16.4

Additionally, to help make debugging asynchronous code easier, we have added new features to Parallel Stacks for Tasks, a window that visualizes Tasks in .NET.

.NET Productivity

We added the new Go To Base command to navigate up the inheritance chain. The Go To Base command is available on the context (right-click) menu or you can type (Alt+Home) on the element you want to navigate through the inheritance hierarchy.

Go To Base Command shown in Visual Studio 2019 v16.4

Also, you can configure the severity level of a code style rule directly through the editor. Place your cursor on the error, warning, or suggestion and type (Ctrl+.) to open the Quick Actions and Refactorings menu. Next, select ‘Configure or Suppress issues’. Finally, select the rule and choose the severity level you would like to configure. This will update your existing EditorConfig with the rule’s new severity. If you do not currently have an .editorconfig file, one will be automatically generated.

Vertical Tabs in Preview

Ever find yourself needing to see more of your document tabs or more lines of code? Now you can take advantage of the horizontal real estate of your widescreen monitors by using vertical document tabs. To learn how to preview this feature, the details are in the vertical document tabs blog.

Vertical Tabs in Visual Studio 2019 v16.4

C++ Tooling

We have made three major improvements in the C++ development experience: the Clang-tidy integration in the editor, Address Sanitizer experimental support, and C++ Build Insights support for the MSVC compiler toolset. In addition to the improvements outlined below, this release also brings C++/CLI support in .NET Core 3.1 and several new enhancements to the CMake integration. These include debug target selection, overview pages and easier customization of environment variables.

Clang-tidy Integration

C++ Code Analysis now natively supports Clang-Tidy for both MSBuild and CMake projects, whether you’re using a Clang or MSVC toolset. clang-tidy checks can run as part of background code analysis, appear as in-editor warnings (squiggles), and display in the Error List.

Clang-Tidy integration in Visual Studio 2019 v16.4

Address Sanitizer support in MSVC (experimental)

You can now enable Address Sanitizer (ASAN) for your Windows C++ projects compiled with MSVC Compiler toolset. ASAN is a fast memory error detector that can find runtime memory issues such as use-after-free and perform out of bounds checks. This support is still experimental as we are actively working on further improving support in upcoming updates.

Visual Studio 2019 v16.4 Experimental Address Sanitizer support in MSVC

C++ Build Insights

You also have access to a collection of ETW-based tools that allow you to analyze your C++ builds and make decisions tailored to your own build scenarios. Consequently, there should be improvements to your build times. To learn more, check out the first in a series of blogposts on this topic: Introducing C++ Build Insights.

C++ Build Insights Demonstration in Visual Studio 2019 v16.4

Visual Studio now supports “FIPS compliance mode”

Starting with version 16.4, Visual Studio 2019 now supports “FIPS 140-2 compliance mode” when developing apps and solutions for Windows, Azure, and .NET. As an important note, there are some scenarios which may not use FIPS 140-2 approved algorithms. These include developing apps or solutions for non-Microsoft platforms like Linux, iOS, or Android as well as third-party software included with Visual Studio or extensions that you choose to install. Finally, development for SharePoint solutions does not support FIPS 140-2 compliance mode.

To configure FIPS 140-2 compliance mode for Visual Studio, install .NET Framework 4.8 and enable the Windows group policy setting: “System cryptography: Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing.”

Extended support for Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4

Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4 is the second supported servicing baseline for Visual Studio 2019. Consequently, Enterprise and Professional customers needing to adopt a long term stable and secure development environment are encouraged to standardize on this version. As explained in more detail in our lifecycle and support policy, version 16.4 will be supported with fixes and security updates for one year after the release of the next servicing baseline.

In addition, now that version 16.4 is available, version 16.0, our last released servicing baseline, will be supported for an additional 12 months. It will go out of support in January 2021. Note as well, versions 16.1, 16.2, and 16.3 are no longer under support. These intermediary releases received servicing fixes only until the next minor update released.

You can acquire the latest most secure version of Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4 in the downloads section of my.visualstudio.com. For more information about Visual Studio supported baselines, please review the support policy for Visual Studio 2019.

End of Support reminders for prior versions of Visual Studio and Expression 4

The following products are nearing their end of support lifetime, which means that we will no longer be issuing security updates for these products. These dates are all available on the Microsoft Lifecycle Policy site.

Visual Studio 2017 version 15.0 – support ends on Jan 14, 2020

Visual Studio 2010 suite of products – support ends on July 14, 2020

Expression 4 suite of products – support ends on Oct 13, 2020

Happy Developing into the New Year!

In whatever way you celebrate the season and the new year, we hope these features will keep you producing your best projects until the time comes to unplug and enjoy the festivities. We love to hear inspiring ideas of ways to improve Visual Studio 2019. Please take all questions and suggestions to Developer Community as this is where teams interact the most. Thank you for all you do to contribute to the community, and we wish you all of the best!

Give Suggestions & Feedback on Developer Community

Jacqueline Widdis
Program Manager, Release Team
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Source: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visua...l-studio-2019/

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Brink · Dec 3, 2019

Visual Studio 2019 Release Candidate (RC) now available

Today we’re sharing a Visual Studio 2019 Release Candidate (RC) – one of the final steps before general availability on April 2 at the virtual launch event. You can download the RC at visualstudio.com/downloads. As always, check out the release notes for the RC for all the details.

Explaining the Release Candidate

With this release, we’re introducing two product “channels”: the release channel and the preview channel. Starting today, Visual Studio 2019 RC is available in the release channel (visualstudio.com/downloads) and Visual Studio 2019 Preview 4 is available in the preview channel (visualstudio.com/preview). Both versions can be installed and used side-by-side and, right now, both channels contain the same bits.

Starting April 2, the release channel (RC) build can be upgraded to our generally available (GA) release, which will be ready for production use. The preview channel will continue to offer an early look at upcoming features, just as you’ve become accustomed to in Visual Studio 2017.

With today’s releases, we encourage you to install either Visual Studio 2019 RC side-by-side with your existing Preview installation, or start using the RC if you haven’t checked out the Preview releases. Visual Studio 2019 RC, as was the case with RCs of previous versions of Visual Studio, is a supported release and comes with a go-live license, but keep in mind that we’re still finalizing things and some workloads remain in preview until April 2. As mentioned, the RC can be upgraded to (GA) on April 2.

To help explain the two channels between now and GA (and beyond), we’ve put together this chart:

Visual Studio 2019 product channels

Visual Studio 2019 Editions

On the download or preview page on visualstudio.com, you’ll find that you can now choose to download the Community, Professional, or Enterprise edition for either channel. Up until now, only the Enterprise edition was available in the Visual Studio 2019 preview channel. If you have an Enterprise license and would like to keep using Visual Studio 2019 Preview, you can simply update to Preview 4 in the Visual Studio Installer. For everyone else, you will have to switch to the edition you’re licensed for, either in the preview (Preview 4) or release (RC) channels. We recommend that you first install your licensed edition, and then uninstall the current Visual Studio 2019 Preview if installed.

Visual Studio Professional and Enterprise have different features. For example, Enterprise has IntelliTrace, Live Unit Testing, Embedded Assemblies for mobile apps, Real Time Architecture Validation, and others – features we continue to hone. A couple of items I’ll call out that are a bit newer in Visual Studio 2019 Enterprise:

The Snapshot Debugger, which enables you to debug production applications in Azure with minimal disruption, adds support for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS).

In a future release of Visual Studio Enterprise 2019 will add a preview of Time Travel Debugging (TTD) integrated with the Snapshot Debugger. TTD enables you to record a process and then accurately reconstruct and replay the execution path. You can rewind and replay each line of code however many times you want, helping you isolate and identify problems.

For Visual Studio Community 2019, we’re making the References, Application Insights (Requests and Exceptions), and Test (Test Status and Tested By) CodeLens capabilities available, which were only available in Visual Studio Professional and Enterprise previously. This means that any Visual Studio 2019 user can can now get specific insights and information about the code, right within the code editor.

Reaching the home stretch together

We’re incredibly grateful to all the users who have been trying out Visual Studio 2019 since the first preview and have been giving us feedback every step of the way. While our generally available release on April 2 only marks the beginning of Visual Studio 2019 releases, we still encourage everyone to install Visual Studio 2019 RC and help us ship the best of Visual Studio to date. Let us know of any issues you run into by using the Report a Problem tool in Visual Studio or head over to the Visual Studio Developer Community to track your issue or suggest a feature.

I hope you all tune in online on April 2 for the virtual launch of Visual Studio 2019, which will be a fun celebration together with you, the community. You can also attend one of the many local launch events happening between April 2 and June 30. I hope you continue to share your feedback in future releases, so Visual Studio continues to be your development environment of choice. Thank you!

Download Visual Studio 2019 RC
Click to expand...

Source: The Visual Studio Blog | Visual Studio 2019 Release Candidate (RC) now available

See also: Visual Studio 2019 Release Notes | Microsoft Docs

Brink · Dec 3, 2019

Visual Studio 2019 Release Candidate (RC) now available

Today we’re sharing a Visual Studio 2019 Release Candidate (RC) – one of the final steps before general availability on April 2 at the virtual launch event. You can download the RC at visualstudio.com/downloads. As always, check out the release notes for the RC for all the details.

Explaining the Release Candidate

With this release, we’re introducing two product “channels”: the release channel and the preview channel. Starting today, Visual Studio 2019 RC is available in the release channel (visualstudio.com/downloads) and Visual Studio 2019 Preview 4 is available in the preview channel (visualstudio.com/preview). Both versions can be installed and used side-by-side and, right now, both channels contain the same bits.

Starting April 2, the release channel (RC) build can be upgraded to our generally available (GA) release, which will be ready for production use. The preview channel will continue to offer an early look at upcoming features, just as you’ve become accustomed to in Visual Studio 2017.

With today’s releases, we encourage you to install either Visual Studio 2019 RC side-by-side with your existing Preview installation, or start using the RC if you haven’t checked out the Preview releases. Visual Studio 2019 RC, as was the case with RCs of previous versions of Visual Studio, is a supported release and comes with a go-live license, but keep in mind that we’re still finalizing things and some workloads remain in preview until April 2. As mentioned, the RC can be upgraded to (GA) on April 2.

To help explain the two channels between now and GA (and beyond), we’ve put together this chart:

Visual Studio 2019 product channels

Visual Studio 2019 Editions

On the download or preview page on visualstudio.com, you’ll find that you can now choose to download the Community, Professional, or Enterprise edition for either channel. Up until now, only the Enterprise edition was available in the Visual Studio 2019 preview channel. If you have an Enterprise license and would like to keep using Visual Studio 2019 Preview, you can simply update to Preview 4 in the Visual Studio Installer. For everyone else, you will have to switch to the edition you’re licensed for, either in the preview (Preview 4) or release (RC) channels. We recommend that you first install your licensed edition, and then uninstall the current Visual Studio 2019 Preview if installed.

Visual Studio Professional and Enterprise have different features. For example, Enterprise has IntelliTrace, Live Unit Testing, Embedded Assemblies for mobile apps, Real Time Architecture Validation, and others – features we continue to hone. A couple of items I’ll call out that are a bit newer in Visual Studio 2019 Enterprise:

The Snapshot Debugger, which enables you to debug production applications in Azure with minimal disruption, adds support for Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS).

In a future release of Visual Studio Enterprise 2019 will add a preview of Time Travel Debugging (TTD) integrated with the Snapshot Debugger. TTD enables you to record a process and then accurately reconstruct and replay the execution path. You can rewind and replay each line of code however many times you want, helping you isolate and identify problems.

For Visual Studio Community 2019, we’re making the References, Application Insights (Requests and Exceptions), and Test (Test Status and Tested By) CodeLens capabilities available, which were only available in Visual Studio Professional and Enterprise previously. This means that any Visual Studio 2019 user can can now get specific insights and information about the code, right within the code editor.

Reaching the home stretch together

We’re incredibly grateful to all the users who have been trying out Visual Studio 2019 since the first preview and have been giving us feedback every step of the way. While our generally available release on April 2 only marks the beginning of Visual Studio 2019 releases, we still encourage everyone to install Visual Studio 2019 RC and help us ship the best of Visual Studio to date. Let us know of any issues you run into by using the Report a Problem tool in Visual Studio or head over to the Visual Studio Developer Community to track your issue or suggest a feature.

I hope you all tune in online on April 2 for the virtual launch of Visual Studio 2019, which will be a fun celebration together with you, the community. You can also attend one of the many local launch events happening between April 2 and June 30. I hope you continue to share your feedback in future releases, so Visual Studio continues to be your development environment of choice. Thank you!

Download Visual Studio 2019 RC
Click to expand...

Source: The Visual Studio Blog | Visual Studio 2019 Release Candidate (RC) now available

See also: Visual Studio 2019 Release Notes | Microsoft Docs

Brink · Dec 3, 2019

Python in Visual Studio Code - January 2019 Release

We are pleased to announce that the January 2019 release of the Python Extension for Visual Studio Code is now available. You can download the Python extension from the Marketplace, or install it directly from the extension gallery in Visual Studio Code. You can learn more about Python support in Visual Studio Code in the documentation.

In this release we have closed a total of 62 issues, including:

IPython console support in the Python Interactive window

Support for running an entire file in the Python Interactive window

Problems for failed tests when using pytest (thanks Chris NeJame)

Much faster outline when using the Python Language Server

Keep on reading to learn more!
Click to expand...

Read more: Python in Visual Studio Code Python at Microsoft

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