Visual Studio Insiders release notes

We're excited to announce the availability of the Insiders release of the Visual Studio 2026 December update. This release marks the beginning of a new era for Visual Studio with deep platform integration of AI, stronger fundamentals, and improved performance.

Download Visual Studio 2026 Insiders to enjoy these new features and improvements.

Features

Released on November 24, 2025.

IDE

Perform certificate revocation checks

Visual Studio now alerts you if it detects digital certificate problems during network calls.

Visual Studio now checks digital certificates for network calls and lets you know if there's a problem.

If it finds an issue, you'll see a dialog with details about the certificate error. You can choose to cancel or continue the connection.

We recommend keeping this feature on, but you can turn it off in Tools → Options → Environment → Security → Certificates.

Productivity

Fast scrolling

You can now scroll faster by holding the Alt key while scrolling the mouse wheel.

Scrolling through large files is now faster and easier. Hold down the Alt key while scrolling the mouse wheel to move quickly when reviewing code or reading documentation.

You can adjust the fast scrolling speed in Tools → Options → Text Editor → Advanced → Touchpad and mouse wheel scrolling sensitivity.

This feature helps you jump to the section you need without lots of scrolling. Try it out!

New markdown preview features ^📣

View preview-only and zoom in/out the preview content in the Visual Studio Markdown editor.

Visual Studio Markdown editor gives you more control over the preview.

• You can switch between preview modes: Split Preview shows the editor and preview side by side, Open Preview shows only the preview, and Edit Markdown shows just the editor. The preview-only mode helps you focus on rendered content, especially for large images or complex Mermaid diagrams.
• When previewing a Mermaid diagram, use the zoom controls in the top left corner to zoom in or out. This makes it easier to view large diagrams and see details.

Try out these new controls and let us know what you think!

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

Git tooling

Review pull requests from Visual Studio ^📣

Review and navigate pull requests without leaving Visual Studio.

Pull requests are just a click away in the View → Git Repository window. No need to switch context to the browser!

Browse active PRs

Access pull requests for the active repository created by your team, assigned to you, created by you, or even created by Copilot!

Refresh the list

Don't see a new PR in the list? Click the ellipsis (...) and select Refresh to update the list.

Embedded PR view

Review pull requests without having to check them out. It's easy to jump between your colleague's PR and your own work. Tip: Collapse the left panel for a wider view.

The embedded view includes:

• Overview: PR description and global issue comments.
• Changes: File-level additions and deletions, plus comments.
• Commits: List of individual commits in the PR.
• Related Items: Linked work items.
• Reviewers: Assigned reviewers.

Pull requests automatically refresh with the latest changes and comments.

When you need to make edits, check out the branch as usual.

📣 See feature ticket to share your feedback and continue the conversation.

Desktop

WinForms Expert agent

The coding agent now includes special instructions for WinForms development, crafted by experts on the team.

The WinForms Expert agent is a comprehensive guide that helps you tackle the nuanced challenges of WinForms development. It covers several critical areas:

Designer code vs. regular code: WinForms projects have two distinct code contexts - designer-generated serialization code and modern business logic. The agent knows which C# features you can use in each context.

Modern .NET patterns: The agent is fully updated for .NET 8-10, including:

• MVVM data binding patterns with the Community Toolkit.
• Async/await patterns with the right InvokeAsync overloads.
• Dark mode support and high-DPI awareness.
• Nullable reference types (NRTs) in the right places.

Layout best practices: Get guidance on using TableLayoutPanel and FlowLayoutPanel for responsive, DPI-aware layouts that work across different screen sizes and scaling factors.

CodeDOM serialization management: Learn critical rules for property serialization in the WinForms designer, so you can avoid common pitfalls with [DefaultValue] attributes and ShouldSerialize*() methods.

Exception handling: Use proper patterns for async event handlers and application-level exception handling to prevent process crashes.

The agent's instructions are detailed, covering everything from control naming conventions to accessibility requirements. It's like having a senior WinForms architect review every line of your code.

.NET

Hot Reload improvements

Faster, more reliable Razor Hot Reload with auto-restart support for rude edits.

We've made several improvements to the Hot Reload experience in Visual Studio.

Improved Hot Reload performance & reliability for Razor files

Thanks to co-hosting the Razor compiler inside the Roslyn process, editing a .razor file during Hot Reload is much faster and more efficient (addressing prior feedback where Blazor Hot Reload could take tens of seconds). This change also increases overall reliability when using Hot Reload.

To enable co-hosting go to Tools → Options and search cohost, which should show the feature Use Roslyn Cohost server (requires restart). After enabling this, it's recommended to restart Visual Studio to ensure it's enabled.

Fewer blocked edits (reduced 'rude edits')

We've expanded what code changes are allowed during Hot Reload. Several edits that previously triggered a rude edit (changes that require a rebuild and restart) are now applied seamlessly. Some examples of edits that are no longer a rude edit include:

• Renaming a file
• Editing code that has lambdas with default parameter values
• Editing property accessors with the field keyword

Auto-restart on 'rude edits'

Hot Reload can now automatically restart the app's process when an unsupported change ('rude edit') is made, instead of ending the entire debug session. To enable this, edit your project file to contain this property declaration

<PropertyGroup>
  <HotReloadAutoRestart>true</HotReloadAutoRestart>
</PropertyGroup>

You can also set this in a Directory.Build.props file. This streamlined auto-restart kicks in for project types where a quick process restart is feasible (e.g. certain Aspire or web projects), so you can continue debugging with minimal interruption.

This is a process-based restart. If you are debugging 4 projects, only the changed project(s) (and any dependent project) will get rebuilt and restarted.

Razor editor improvements

Faster and smarter Razor editor in Visual Studio, cohosting boosts speed/reliability and much more.

Here's a list of notable improvements to the Razor editor:

Performance & Reliability (Cohosting)

The Razor compiler and tooling experience now runs cohosted inside Roslyn LSP server, greatly speeding up Razor file updates (e.g. Hot Reload changes apply much faster) and improving reliability during editing.

To enable co-hosting go to Tools → Options and search cohost, which should show the feature Use Roslyn Cohost server (requires restart). After enabling this, it's recommended to restart Visual Studio to ensure it's enabled.

Simplify Tag Code Action (Community Contribution)

Added a new code fix to convert an empty component tag into a self-closing tag when no content or required child elements are present (contributed by Peter Juhasz). For example <Component Attribute="Value"> </Component> can be simplified to <Component Attribute="Value" />

Extract Style Block to .razor.css

You can now use a code action to extract an inline <style> section from a Razor component into a separate .razor.css file. This helps isolate component-specific styles Blazor's CSS Isolation by automatically creating or updating the matching .razor.css file for the component.

@bind:event IntelliSense

Improved Razor IntelliSense to provide completion suggestions for @bind:<event> values (contributed by Peter Juhasz). When using two-way data binding with custom events (for example, @bind="Value" @bind:event="oninput" in Blazor), the editor now autocompletes valid event names like oninput or onchange.

Formatting Improvements

The new Razor formatting engine received numerous bug fixes and enhancements. Razor editor now better honors C# formatting style options (e.g. spacing, indenting rules from Visual Studio configuration) inside Razor files and resolves various formatting quirks that existed in previous versions (especially around mixed HTML/C# content).

Debugging Tooltip Enhancements

Improved the debugger hover tooltips in Razor files. Visual Studio now more reliably displays variable values and object previews when you hover over variables or components in a Razor file during a debugging session, making it easier to inspect data at runtime.

Go To Definition for Tag Helpers

Leveraging new capabilities from cohosting, you can now navigate to the definitions of ASP.NET Core MVC Tag Helpers and their attributes directly from Razor files. Hitting F12 (or Ctrl+Click) on a Tag Helper (e.g. an <input asp-for=" "> or any MVC Tag Helper usage) will jump to its source definition. This long-requested feature makes it much easier to explore and understand Tag Helpers in your projects.

General IntelliSense Fixes

Addressed several Razor editor IntelliSense issues. HTML snippets (like typing div + Tab to expand a <div> block) now appear consistently in Razor files (previously they sometimes failed to show up). Autocomplete for hyphenated attributes and component parameters (e.g. data-* attributes or Blazor component parameters with dashes) is more robust, so suggestions and completions work as expected in these cases.

Razor Compiler Optimizations

Introduced significant compiler performance and memory usage improvements for Razor and Blazor projects. Solutions with many Razor components should see faster builds and less memory overhead. These optimizations make editing and building Razor pages snappier, addressing prior feedback about high memory usage and slow incremental builds in large Blazor apps.

Smarter .NET test generation

Create and refine unit tests faster with GitHub Copilot's intelligent test generation.

Visual Studio now includes smarter test generation with GitHub Copilot. You can quickly create and refine tests to boost coverage and confidence in your code. This feature works with C# and popular frameworks like xUnit, NUnit, and MSTest.

Whether you're starting a new project or improving an existing one, GitHub Copilot testing helps you write tests faster and keeps everything in your workflow. Just use @Test in GitHub Copilot Chat to get started.

C++

App modernization

GitHub Copilot app modernization for C++ is now available in Private Preview.

We're excited to share that GitHub Copilot app modernization for C++ is now in Private Preview. GitHub Copilot app modernization for C++ helps you migrate your C++ projects to the latest version of the Microsoft C++ (MSVC) Build Tools.

Want to try it? Sign up for the Private Preview at aka.ms/cppagents.

Code editing tools for agent mode

C++ Code Editing Tools for GitHub Copilot Agent Mode are now available in Private Preview.

We're excited to share that C++ Code Editing Tools for GitHub Copilot Agent Mode are now in Private Preview. These tools help Copilot better understand C++ symbols in your code, so you can refactor and edit faster.

Want to try it? Sign up for the Private Preview at aka.ms/cppagents

Improve your build time

Automatically find and fix build performance issues in C++ projects using MSVC.

GitHub Copilot build performance for Windows analyzes your MSVC-based C++ projects to identify build performance issues and apply fixes to improve your build times. This agent can help you automatically optimize your codebase and reduce build times.

@BuildPerfCpp in GitHub Copilot chat to optimize your build time" />

Want to try it? Sign up for the Private Preview at aka.ms/cppagents

Extensibility

Experimental Instance relocated

Added Start Experimental Instance and Reset Experimental Instance commands to the Extensions menu.

Start and reset experimental instance commands are now in the Extensions → Extension Development menu. You don't need to use Windows Start menu shortcuts to launch or reset the experimental Visual Studio instance anymore.

These commands are easier to find and help you avoid accidentally launching root-suffixed instances, which are only for Visual Studio extension development.

You can still use the old shortcuts at [installdir\vssdk] if you prefer.

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Version 11222.16

Released November 24^th, 2025

Top bug fixes	From the community
Fixed a crash that affected C++ programs using OpenMP.	Feedback ticket
VS2026 Insiders are unable to hotload WPF applications developed by the .NET framework 4.8	Feedback ticket
Visual Studio 2026 Insiders DataTips unreadable	Feedback ticket
Source control plugin change gives pop-up	Feedback ticket
Copilot Agent mode in Visual Studio 2022 does not find files that are in the workspace	Feedback ticket

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Version 11218.70

Released November 19^th, 2025

Top bug fixes	From the community
Adds Xcode 26.1 support for the .NET for iOS / tvOS / macOS / MacCatalyst / MAUI workloads. See release notes for workload v26.1.10494.
Hot reload exception when edit a .razor page	Feedback ticket
Significant debugger hang on first break point in solution with many solution items	Feedback ticket
Columnstore Index containing Vector column error	Feedback ticket
Performance Profiler does not load symbols correctly for unmanaged code in C++/CLI	Feedback ticket

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From our entire team, thank you for choosing Visual Studio! For the latest updates, resources, and news, check out the Visual Studio Hub and stay in touch.

Happy coding!
The Visual Studio team

Note

This update may include new Microsoft or third-party software that is licensed separately, as set out in the 3rd Party Notices or in its accompanying license.