Windows 10: Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 Preview 2 now available

Brink · Apr 25, 2019

The second preview of Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 is now available. You can download it from VisualStudio.com, or, if you already have installed Preview, just click the notification bell inside Visual Studio to update. This latest preview contains additional performance and reliability fixes as well as enhancements for debugging, NuGet, extensibility, and C++ development. We’ve highlighted some notable features below. You can see a list of all the changes in the Preview release notes.

Improvements for C++ developers

CMake integration

In-editor helpers: We’ve added in-editor documentation for CMake commands, variables, and properties. You can now leverage IntelliSense autocompletion and quick info tooltips when editing a CMakeLists.txt file, which will save you time spent outside of the IDE referencing documentation and make the process less error-prone. See the C++ Team blog post on in-editor documentation for CMake in Visual Studio for more information.

In addition, Preview 2 adds lightbulbs for missing #includes that can be installed by vcpkg, and provides package autocompletion for the CMake find_package directive.

Clang/LLVM support: CMake integration now supports the Clang/LLVM toolchain for projects targeting Windows and/or Linux, so you can build, edit, and debug CMake projects that use Clang, MSVC, or GCC. The CMake version that ships with Visual Studio has been upgraded to 3.14 as well. This version adds built-in support for MSBuild generators targeting Visual Studio 2019 projects as well as file-based IDE integration APIs.

To learn more about these and other CMake improvements, see the C++ Team blog post Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 Preview 2 CMake improvements.

C++ productivity improvements

C++ Template IntelliSense: The Template Bar dropdown menu is populated based on the instantiations of that template in your codebase. More details on this feature can be found in the post “C++ Template IntelliSense: Auto-populate instantiations in template bar” on the C++ Team blog.

Progress on C++20 conformance

Conformance improvements: New C++20 preview features have been added to the compiler and are available under /std:c++latest. Per P0846R0, the compiler has increased ability to find function templates via argument-dependent lookup for function call expressions with explicit template arguments. Also supported is designated initialization (P0329R4), which allows specific members to be selected in aggregate initialization, e.g. using the Type t { .member = expr } syntax.

We have also added new C++20 features to our implementation of the C++ Standard Library, including starts_with() and ends_with() for basic_string/basic_string_view, and contains() for associative containers. For more information, see the Preview 2 release notes.

Improved NuGet package debugging

Last year, we announced improved package debugging support with NuGet.org Symbol Server. Starting with Visual Studio version 16.1 Preview 2, debugging NuGet packages just became a whole lot simpler now that you can enable NuGet.org Symbol Server from the Debugging\Symbols option.

Source Link Improvements

Source Link now supports Windows authentication scenarios. Ultimately, using Windows authentication will allow you to use Source Link for on-premises Azure DevOps Servers (formerly, Team Foundation Server).

Visual Studio Search

Based on user feedback, Visual Studio Search will now display the three most recently used actions on focus. This makes it even easier to find previously searched-for items.

Solution view selector

The button for switching the Solution Explorer view will now consistently show you a dropdown menu of all possible views. Per your feedback, this solution removes the confusion of having the button default to toggling between Folder View and Solution View and not being clear on which solution it would open.

We have also improved the loading time for very large solutions, where the amount of improvement varies based on the size of the solution.

Extensibility

A number of updates to Visual Studio extensibility are included in this release, including Shared Project support and per-monitor awareness for dialogs. We’ve also eliminated the need for a .resx file and disabled synchronous auto-load. Additionally, the Visual Studio 2019 version of Microsoft.VisualStudio.SDK is now available as a NuGet package. Read all about these changes in the New features for extension authors in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 blog post.

Another notable extensibility update in this Preview is that project templates now support custom tags which allow them to show up in the New Project Dialog. See how to add tags in the blog post Build Visual Studio templates with tags, for efficient user search and grouping.

App Installer Templates

Over the last few releases, Visual Studio has improved the sideload packaging distribution experience for developers by introducing the App Installer file which specifies where an application is located and how it should be updated. Users who choose this method of application distribution simply share the App Installer file with their users rather than the actual app container.

The options available for use in the App Installer file are different based upon the Windows version the user is targeting. To enable maximum flexibility, Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 allows users to define and configure the App Installer Update settings from a template Package.appinstaller.

Activate this template by right-clicking the project and selecting Add > New Item > App Installer Template.

The Package.appinstaller template file is available to edit and customize the update settings you want to use.

Note that once the template is added to the project, the user will no longer be able to customize update settings in the packaging wizard. All customizations must thus be edited in the template.

Use the latest features; give us feedback

To try out this preview of the latest features, either download Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 Preview 2, update your existing preview channel installation by using the notification bell inside Visual Studio, or click Update from within the Visual Studio Installer.

We continue to value your feedback. As always, let us know of any issues you run into by using the Report a Problem tool in Visual Studio. You can also head over to the Visual Studio Developer Community to track your issues, suggest a feature, ask questions, and find answers from others. We use your feedback to continue to improve Visual Studio 2019, so thank you again on behalf of our entire team.

Download Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 Preview 2

Paul Chapman,
Principal Program Manager, Visual Studio Release Engineering
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Source: Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 Preview 2 | The Visual Studio Blog

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Brink · Apr 25, 2019

Visual Studio 2019 Preview 2 Blog Rollup

Visual Studio 2019 Preview 2 was a huge release for us, so we’ve written a host of articles to explore the changes in more detail. For the short version, see the Visual Studio 2019 Preview 2 Release Notes.

What’s New in CMake

C++ Binary Compatibility and Pain-Free Upgrades

New Code Analysis Checks – use-after move and coroutine

Concurrency Code Analysis

Introducing the New CMake Project Settings UI

In-Editor Code Analysis

Productivity Improvements

Template IntelliSense Improvements

Backend Improvements: New Optimizations, OpenMP, and Build Throughput Improvements

Lifetime Checker Update

We’d love for you to download Visual Studio 2019 Preview, give it a try, and let us know how it’s working for you in the comments below or via email (L: visualcpp@microsoft.com). If you encounter problems or have a suggestion, please let us know through Help > Send Feedback > Report A Problem / Provide a Suggestion or via Visual Studio Developer Community. You can also find us on Twitter @VisualC.
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Source: Visual Studio 2019 Preview 2 Blog Rollup | Visual C++ Team Blog

See also: Visual Studio 2019 Launch Event on April 2 - Windows 10 Forums

Brink · Apr 25, 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 · Apr 25, 2019

Visual Studio Roadmap Updates and Visual Studio 2019 Information

Yesterday, we covered What’s next for Visual Studio for Mac, and today we’ve updated our Visual Studio Roadmap so you can see the latest news about what we’re working on. We’re particularly excited to share this update since it includes information about the first preview of Visual Studio 2019, which we will make available by the end of this calendar year. We plan to have a generally available (GA) version of Visual Studio 2019 in the first half of 2019.

Be sure to check out the full roadmap for all the updates, but some notable improvements are:

A better performing and more reliable debugger, moving to an out-of-process 64-bit process.

Improved search accuracy for menus, commands, options, and installable components.

Visual Studio tooling for Windows Forms and WPF development on .NET Core 3.

As always, we are committed to making Visual Studio a great development environment: faster, more reliable, more productive for individuals and teams, and easier to get started with developing your code. Please continue to share your feedback with us so we can make the best tools for your development. You can send us your suggestions, ideas, and concerns through our Developer Community portal.

We will keep updating the roadmap as we deliver Visual Studio 2019 features iteratively. To try out the newest features and fixes, keep an eye on the Visual Studio Preview page and on this blog for announcements about the latest previews.

John Montgomery,
Director of Program Management for Visual Studio
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Source: Visual Studio Roadmap Updates and Visual Studio 2019 Information | The Visual Studio Blog

Windows 10: Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 Preview 2 now available

Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 Preview 2 now available

Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 Preview 2 now available

Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1 Preview 2 now available

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