Microsoft this week made Visual Studio 2026 — the latest version of its flagship dev platform — generally available, calling it the most community-driven release in the IDE’s history and positioning it as the first development environment built around AI from the ground up.Amanda Silver, corporate vice president in Microsoft’s CoreAI division, indicated that the company worked more closely with developers on this release than on any previous version.“This is a moment we’ve built side by side with you,” wrote Mads Kristensen, principal product manager, in a blog post. “Your feedback has helped shape this release more than any before.”The preview period drew more testers than any other Visual Studio release. Since Microsoft launched the Insiders Channel in September, Kristensen said, “more developers have downloaded and tested this preview than any other in Visual Studio’s history.”Mads Kristensen, Microsoft PPM, Visual StudioAI Woven ThroughoutMicrosoft also made a bold claim about Visual Studio 2026’s AI capabilities. Kristensen wrote that it’s “AI-native, making it the world’s first Intelligent Developer Environment (IDE).”He noted that the AI capabilities serve as productivity enhancers rather than a replacement for developer judgment.“That doesn’t mean changing how you work,” Kristensen wrote. “It means giving you intelligence when it matters most. If you’re debugging a tricky issue, profiling performance, or modernizing an application, AI steps in to remove friction and surface insights that help you move faster without disrupting your flow.”Brad Shimmin, an analyst at The Futurum Group, said Microsoft “really makes some nifty moves in bringing AI to the forefront in a way that Visual Studio developers will find more useful than annoying. Anyway, from what I can see so far, Microsoft is using this release to flip the script with AI, where AI is no longer a separate tool but is woven into the core functions of the IDE itself,” he told The New Stack. “Instead of just a chat window (à la Cursor), AI is part of the debugger, the profiler and even basic actions like copy-paste.”Shimmin added that he “loves” the copy-paste tool, as developers can use it to automatically convert pasted code according to project, corporate and personal preferences.“That’s pretty powerful, since developers frequently bring in AI-generated code from numerous sources — for example, yesterday’s Stack Overflow is today’s ChatGPT,” he told The New Stack. Developers can even transcode from one language to another, he added.Brad Shimmin of The Futurum GroupThere are also new C# and C++ agents in the release, though the C++ capabilities are still in private preview. Kristensen said these tools are “designed for professional developers who need precision and speed every day.”Meanwhile, GitHub Copilot integration has become central to how many developers use Visual Studio. Kristensen said Copilot “has quickly become one of the most used features in Visual Studio, earning praise from developers who rely on it every day.”Indeed, Rockford “Rocky” Lhotka, vice president of strategy at Xebia and a Microsoft MVP, said he has been using VS 2026 in preview for a few weeks, and he uses AI to assist in nearly all of his development work now.“I think it is faster than VS 2022, more responsive overall. The AI integration through GitHub Copilot is a big improvement, bringing Visual Studio close to the capability of VS Code in terms of Agent mode,” he told The New Stack.Moreover, “Combine the improved AI integration with the pre-existing powerful feature set of Visual Studio, and I find myself using it more than VS Code. Which is saying something, because the Agent mode in VS Code was substantially better than VS 2022,” he added. “Now the AI agent capabilities are closer, and the overall feature set of VS 2026 is superior to VS Code, especially when working with Blazor apps.”Roberto Perez, a senior global solutions architect at Redis, said the AI-powered profiling feels like having an expert looking over your shoulder. “The Profiler Agent in Visual Studio immediately highlighted the bottlenecks and guided me to faster, cleaner performance — like having a built-in performance coach,” he said in a statement.Richard Campbell, chairman at CloudArmy and a Microsoft MVP, told The New Stack, “I’ve noticed that VS 2026 is generally snappier — they have done extensive work in splitting out threads of execution internally, so even when the IDE is performing intensive tasks, it’s done in the background and doesn’t impact the user experience.”Meanwhile, Copilot also helps with upgrading codebases. According to the announcement, “upgrades to .NET 10 and the latest C++ build tools are accelerated and guided with expertise” through GitHub Copilot’s app modernization features.Fixing Thousands of BugsMicrosoft claims it addressed more user complaints than ever before in this release. In the year leading up to release, the team “fixed over 5,000 of your reported bugs and implemented 300 feature requests,” Kristensen wrote. “That’s the most we’ve ever done, and we’re just getting started!”The company credits AI tools with helping it respond faster to community feedback. The team is now “delivering improvements faster than ever before” thanks to AI-driven tools that accelerate how they identify and resolve issues, according to the blog post.Performance Gets a Major OverhaulIn addition, Microsoft spent considerable effort eliminating the performance hiccups that interrupt developer work. Kristensen acknowledged a common frustration: “You know that sinking feeling when lag interrupts your flow? We’ve worked hard to make that a thing of the past.”Visual Studio 2026 loads massive solutions significantly faster than its predecessor, and UI freezes have been cut by more than half, the company said. Kristensen said the new version delivers “blazing-fast performance,” with startup that’s “significantly snappier” and a UI so smooth “you’ll barely notice it’s there, cutting hangs by over 50% and giving the IDE a lightweight, effortless vibe, even on massive projects.”Steve Smith, a principal software architect at NimblePros, praised the speed improvements. “Wow! I just opened a solution with over 100 projects, and I can’t believe how fast it came up and was ready,” he said in a statement. “Well done, Visual Studio team.”But Kristensen said raw metrics only tell part of the story. “Stats are cool, but what really matters is how it actually feels to use. The IDE just runs way faster, smoother, and more responsive. That’s something you can’t always see in the numbers.”No Migration HeadachesMicrosoft emphasized that developers won’t face the usual upgrade pain with the new release.“Here’s the best part: Visual Studio 2026 is fully compatible with your projects and extensions from Visual Studio 2022,” Kristensen wrote. “Open your existing solutions and start coding immediately. No migration steps, no surprises.”All 4,000-plus extensions from Visual Studio 2022 work immediately in the new version. Kristensen said developers “can upgrade with peace of mind, and your setup will feel just as stable and familiar as ever.”Didier Donner, principal software engineer at Aspen Technology, confirmed the smooth transition. “Getting the extensions from Visual Studio 2022 was a definitive plus: I was ready to use VS 2026 immediately.”IDE Updates Decoupled From CompilersMicrosoft made a significant architectural change to address a longstanding complaint. Kristensen explained the old problem: “For a long time, updating Visual Studio meant you also had to upgrade your .NET and C++ build tools, since those were tightly linked to the IDE. That often made things tricky, because you’d want the latest features and bug fixes, but the update could mess with your existing projects or force you into toolchain changes you weren’t ready for.”Visual Studio 2026 breaks that dependency. The IDE now updates independently of build tools, so developers “can update Visual Studio itself any time you want without affecting your .NET or C++ compilers,” Kristensen said. Monthly automatic updates will bring “fresh features, design tweaks, and productivity boosts delivered right to your IDE, while keeping your toolchains stable for as long as you need.”Polish and Quality of LifeMicrosoft also focused on smaller improvements that add up over time.“When you’re using Visual Studio all day long, every interaction matters,” Kristensen wrote. “We’ve doubled down on perfecting the essentials — removing friction, fixing those subtle ‘paper cuts,’ and refining the flow of your work.”The release includes a redesigned UI, a more flexible settings system and what Kristensen called “hundreds of under-the-hood improvements that make the IDE feel better in every way.”Erik Ejlskov Jensen, a master at Context&, said in a statement that he appreciated the attention to detail.“What I love most about Visual Studio 2026 is the performance and the fresh and crisp UI — and support for Mermaid diagrams is the icing on the cake.”Download Now, Buy LaterVisual Studio 2026 is available for download now. Subscribers can simply sign in and their licenses activate automatically. Developers using product keys can retrieve them at my.visualstudio.com.Stand-alone Professional licenses won’t be available through the Microsoft Store until Dec. 1.For developers who want bleeding-edge features, Microsoft offers the Insiders Channel with frequent updates. The Insiders version can run alongside the stable release without affecting production work.Kristensen wrapped up his post by asking developers to stay engaged with the team.“Download Visual Studio 2026 now and swing by the Visual Studio Developer Community to share what’s working, what you’re creating, or where we can step it up. We’re listening.”AI Marketing Hype?AI hype is rampant, but can VS 2026 live up to the hype?“I would say that painting it [VS 2026] as ‘the first IDE built from the ground up with AI in mind’ seems like much more marketing hype,” Lenni Lobel, a Microsoft consultant at EY and a Microsoft MVP, told The New Stack. “Of course, this IDE builds on previous releases and can’t really be thought of as green field in any way.”Meanwhile, “The rethink toward AI is interesting, but it’s still early days — I understand they have committed to monthly updates now, so I expect it will evolve quickly,” Campbell said.“The rethink of software development using these sophisticated code generators is just emerging now … it does seem to me that the VS team has positioned the tool to respond to the evolution of these tools,” he added.Holger Mueller, an analyst at Constellation Research, said he believes Microsoft was taken by surprise by vibe coding.Yet, “when it comes to its IDE, Visual Studio, as IDE requirements switch from writing code from line 1 productively, to reviewed code … Effectively developers go from writers to editors,” he told The New Stack. “By now Microsoft has been adapting to the new reality (e.g., offering monthly AI capability progress), but VS 2026 is the culmination of the efforts, for the first time reflecting the future of coding with UX — settings, look and feel, code actions — changes in the IDE.”Holger Mueller of Constellation ResearchAnd, as a market observer, The Futurum Group’s Shimmin said he sees these and several other new changes, such as better performance and stability, as absolutely critical for Visual Studio.“Even though Microsoft is the 400-pound gorilla in the IDE world, it faces a lot of pressure from established rivals like JetBrains and newcomers like Zed Industries, which has built an IDE — in Rust, I might add — that focuses on speed, collaboration and AI in equal measure.“With AI slapped on the side as a plug-in and with basic performance/stability limitations inherent in its architecture — built in JavaScript, basically — the previous version of Visual Studio looked a bit long in the tooth compared with more modern ideas like Zed. This set of updates with the 2026 release, however, mitigates a lot of these concerns and sets this important IDE up as a future-leaning offering that’s not content to rest on its laurels.”The post Developers Test Visual Studio 2026’s AI-Native Claims appeared first on The New Stack.