Microsoft Introduces Agent Skills in Visual Studio

Microsoft's Mads Kristensen says subagents are coming to Copilot in Visual Studio, adding another agentic AI feature to Microsoft's flagship Windows IDE. VS Code already documents subagent support in several forms: context-isolated subagents, custom agents used as subagents, parallel subagent execution, model-specific subagents and an experimental search subagent.

🚀 Visual Studio Insiders keeps getting smarter. One small UI change caught my attention in the latest update: the new GitHub Copilot-powered exception experience. Now, when an exception is thrown, Visual Studio can: ✅ Suggest automatic fixes ✅ Apply edits automatically ✅ Adjust the “Thinking” level dynamically ✅ Analyze context faster with Copilot integration This is more than a UI refresh. It feels like debugging is slowly evolving from a manual workflow into an AI-assisted experience. The most interesting part for me is the balance between: 🧠 automatic reasoning ⚡ faster debugging 🎯 keeping developers in control We’re moving toward IDEs that don’t just show errors… they actively help resolve them. Have you tried the new Visual Studio Insiders experience yet? #VisualStudio #GitHubCopilot #AI #DotNet #CSharp #Programming #SoftwareDevelopment #DeveloperTools #Debugging #Productivity Microsoft Visual Studio

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is quickly becoming one of the most important standards in AI-assisted development -- and yet many .NET developers are still figuring out what it actually does and how to start using it. In this Q&A preview of his upcoming Visual Studio Live! @ Microsoft HQ session, Microsoft Product Manager Mike Kistler explains the problem MCP solves: it gives every LLM a universal, standardized way to access external data -- databases, APIs, GitHub repos, MS Learn docs -- without requiring developers to manually copy-paste context into a chat window. Kistler walks through a practical example using GitHub Copilot and MCP to compare pull requests, run diffs, review CI/CD logs, and even create a new PR -- all in a single conversation. He also addresses the security considerations developers need to think through before deploying MCP servers at scale. His session, "Building and Using MCP Servers in Visual Studio," takes place July 29 at Visual Studio Live! @ Microsoft HQ (July 27-31). Developers can get a head start with the C# SDK for MCP and the quickstart tutorial on Microsoft Learn.

Visual Studio’s story isn’t just about an IDE — it’s about how Microsoft tooling kept adapting as development changed. ⚙️ From COM and .NET to containers and AI, this post traces the shifts that shaped Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. Key takeaways: • Visual Studio 97 unified separate language tools into one shell • VS 2022 went 64-bit and now ships 10 major updates per year • VS Code has become the lighter, cross-platform default for many workflows • Copilot, Live Share, Roslyn, and workload-based installs changed how teams work • Microsoft now treats VS and VS Code as a continuum, not rivals If you build on Microsoft stacks, this is a useful history of where the tooling is headed. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/evEhQjQG #VisualStudio #VSCode #Microsoft #dotnet #Development

10 Must-Have Visual Studio Code Extensions That Make Developers More Productive Discover 10 must-have Visual Studio Code extensions that help developers write cleaner code, boost productivity, and improve workflow. Includes tools like Prettier, Live Server, GitLens, and more. Read more → https://lnkd.in/dcZ_jUQY #TheCampusCoders #Tech #Developers #WebDev

Build and Deploy Logic App Workflows Using Visual Studio Code and CI/CD Pipeline. Throughout this guide, you'll create a Standard logic app workspace and project, build your workflow, and deploy it as a Standard logic app resource in Azure. This enables your workflow to run in a single-tenant Azure Logic Apps environment or within an App Service Environment v3 (restricted to Windows-based App Service plans). Key advantages of Standard logic apps include: You can locally develop, debug, run, and test workflows within the Visual Studio Code environment. Although both the Azure portal and Visual Studio Code support building, running, and deploying Standard logic app resources and workflows, Visual Studio Code allows you to perform all these actions locally, offering greater flexibility during development. Prerequisites Visual Studio Code Azure Account extension for Visual Studio Code Download and install the following Visual... #techcommunity #azure #microsoft https://lnkd.in/eSkXyQEZ

🚀 Recently explored how to locally test Azure Queue Trigger Functions using Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer with .NET in Visual Studio! Instead of deploying every time to test queue messages, we can simulate the entire flow locally and save a lot of development time ⏱️ 🔹 How I configured it in Visual Studio (.NET): 1️⃣ Created an Azure Function App project in Visual Studio 2️⃣ Added a Queue Trigger Function 3️⃣ Configured "local.settings.json" with local storage connection { "IsEncrypted": false, "Values": { "AzureWebJobsStorage": "UseDevelopmentStorage=true", "FUNCTIONS_WORKER_RUNTIME": "dotnet-isolated" } } 4️⃣ Installed and ran Azurite for local Azure Storage emulation 5️⃣ Opened Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer 6️⃣ Connected to Local & Attached → Storage Accounts 7️⃣ Created a Queue inside the local storage account 8️⃣ Added queue messages manually through Storage Explorer 9️⃣ Ran the Function App locally from Visual Studio ▶️ 🎯 Once a message is added to the queue, the Queue Trigger Function automatically picks it up and processes it locally. 💡 This setup is really useful for: ✔️ Faster debugging ✔️ Local development testing ✔️ Validating queue payloads ✔️ Reducing deployment dependency during development 🛠️ Tools Used: 🔹 Azure Functions 🔹 Visual Studio 🔹 Azure Storage Explorer 🔹 Azurite 🔹 .NET / C# Small productivity improvements like this make development much smoother 🚀 #Azure #AzureFunctions #DotNet #CSharp #Microservices #CloudComputing #VisualStudio #SoftwareEngineering #AzureStorage #Developer

Microsoft's May Visual Studio update adds several developer workflow features around GitHub Copilot and C++ tooling. The release includes a Plan agent for pre-implementation planning, a skills management panel, context window usage visibility, unified multi-file diff review for Copilot and Git changes, and MSVC Build Tools v14.51. Microsoft says v14.51 is generally available, is the default compiler starting with Visual Studio 2026 18.6 and will receive nine months of servicing fixes.

Announcing WDK with Visual Studio 2026. What's New in This Release Visual Studio 2026 Support The WDK now fully supports Visual Studio 2026 for building, testing, and packaging Windows drivers. With this release, developers can confidently adopt Visual Studio 2026 in production workflows, taking advantage of its improvements in performance, C++ tooling, diagnostics, and overall IDE reliability—all of which directly benefit large driver solutions and complex build pipelines. For more on Visual Studio 2026, see Visual Studio 2026 Release Notes. WDK Delivery and Availability The WDK ships in three packaging formats, all of which now fully support Visual Studio 2026: Format Where to Get ItWDK NuGetNuget.orgWDK MSIDownload the Windows Driver KitSDK MSIWindows SDKEnterprise WDK (EWDK) ISODownload the Windows Driver Kit   The NuGet-based WDK remains the recommended approach for modern and automated workflows. For developers who need... #techcommunity #azure #microsoft https://lnkd.in/evz78bqy

Even with extensive experience using Visual Studio at an advanced level, transitioning to Visual Studio Code presents its own challenges. It's fascinating how two tools from the same ecosystem can feel so distinct in everyday use. In Visual Studio, I appreciate: - Deep project awareness - Rich debugging experience - Integrated tooling out of the box - Heavy solution-level navigation Conversely, VS Code is: - Lightweight and fast - Extension-driven - More of a "build-your-own IDE" - Sometimes less opinionated than I expect This difference can be challenging. Aspects that come naturally in Visual Studio—like solution structure, debugging flows, and integrated tooling—often require a different mental model in VS Code. It's not necessarily harder, just different. It demands a more intentional approach to setup, extensions, and workspace configuration. I have found it helpful to view VS Code not as a "smaller Visual Studio," but as a flexible editor tailored for specific tasks. Over time, this shift in mindset can significantly impact productivity, especially when working with cloud-native stacks, scripts, and lightweight services where VS Code truly excels. This experience serves as a reminder that even seasoned developers must adapt to their toolchain, and that encountering friction often indicates a move outside one's comfort zone. #VisualStudio #VSCode #SoftwareEngineering #DeveloperExperience #Microsoft #Architecture #Coding #DeveloperTools