Visual Studio 2022 is the first version of the IDE that will be available as a 64-bit app and thus it won't be limited to ~4GB of memory in the main devenv.exe process. Currently, it is available as a preview bit for the interested developers to try and provide feedback to Microsoft.
Last month the company released the second preview build and the company came up with Preview 3 of the Visual Studio 2022. The latest version of Visual Studio 2022 features the following new features and improvements. To get the latest build, find the official download links below.
Highlights of Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 Preview 3
Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 Preview 3 is more focused on building new capabilities on the themes of personal and team productivity, modern development, and constant innovation. In this build, Microsoft added new capabilities to some of the less used, but useful, features such as attach to process.
The "attach to process" dialog is now asynchronous, shows the command line arguments for processes, IIS information for w3wp.exe processes. It also adds an optional tree view mode for showing parent-child process relationships.
In this release of Visual Studio 2022, Microsoft added a brand-new project properties designer for .NET SDK projects.
To improve the usability of Visual Studio, Microsoft added some big changes to the dark theme. It now has a new dark theme with a new accent color, which is used widely to reduce distraction and eyestrain.
In this build, Microsoft added new capabilities to run tests in Linux environments and new project types for frontend development with React and Vue.js applications using either TypeScript or JavaScript.
Using remote testing, you can now get feedback from your cross-platform tests. You can even debug them from the Visual Studio 2022 IDE.
The new JavaScript and TypeScript project types for Angular, Vue, and React made it easier to incorporate front-end applications within your Visual Studio solution.
Visual Studio 2022 Preview 3 also received new preview features such as multiple Git repositories which enables you to work with a single solution that has projects in multiple repositories. You can enable it from the `Preview` tab of the Tools -> Options menu.
How to download Visual Studio 2022 Preview
Visual Studio 2022 is still under development and comes as a Preview build. To download the latest version of Visual Studio 2022 (Preview), navigate to this page and download* the edition of your choice. It comes in three different editions: Visual Studio Community 2022, Visual Studio Professional 2022, and Visual Studio Enterprise 2022.
* We update this page regularly with the official download links of Microsoft Visual Studio 2022. Here you will always get the latest version of the Visual Studio installer.
Before downloading the Visual Studio 2022 Preview build, make sure that you meet the minimum system requirements to install it. Do note that this preview release does not come with a "go-live" license and thus it is not intended for use on production computers or for creating production code.
What's new in Visual Studio 2022 Preview 3
Extensibility
- Added ILanguageClient breaking change fixes
Trusted Locations
- Added support for Git repositories as trusted locations
- Trust checks are now done at the solution folder level
- User created projects are automatically added to the trusted list
- Users can skip trust checks on temporary locations created by Visual Studio
- Added Group Policy support as a way to manage the trust functionality
Editor
- Added subword navigation
- Autosave is now available as a preview feature
- Multi-caret copy/paste experience
Debugging & Diagnostics
- Breakpoint Gutter improvements
- Temporary Breakpoint
- Drag and Drop Breakpoint
- External Sources Node in Solution Explorer
- Attach to process dialog improvements
- Memory Dump Diagnostic Analysis
JavaScript/TypeScript
- We have released a new JavaScript/TypeScript project type that builds standalone JavaScript/TypeScript projects with additional tooling.
- JavaScript and TypeScript testing is now available in the Visual Studio Test Explorer
Git Tooling
- Basic multi-repo support under a preview flag for any Solution that spans different repositories (i.e. Solutions with projects hosted in different Git repositories)
- Publish to Azure DevOps is now fully supported in the create git repository experience
- Status bar enhancements including a new ability to view and open repositories from an empty VS
- Commit details enhancements including a more responsive and user friendly UI
- The overflow menu on the Git Changes window is now available for local only repositories with additional git operations
.NET Productivity
- Nullable reference types is now enabled by default for new .NET projects
- Undo/Redo support for Remove Unused References
- C# 10.0 File-scoped namespace refactoring
- Navigate to decompiled sources is now on by default
- Refactoring to prefer null check over type check
- XML comments will now automatically generate an
<excption>
tag when a method explicitly throws exceptions
- Inheritance Margin is now enabled by default
C++
- CMake Overview Pages have been updated to support CMakePresets.json.
- You can now configure and build your CMake projects with CMake 3.21 and CMakePresets.json v3.
- You can now debug processes running on a remote systems from Visual Studio with LLDB.
- Made improvements in C++ IntelliSense when providing navigation and syntax highlighting for types from imported Modules and Header Units. This is an active area of investment for us, please continue to share your feedback on Developer Community using Help->Send Feedback.
- Improved C++ IntelliSense performance by optimizing cached header usage and symbol database access, providing improved load times to get into your code.
- The IntelliSense Code Linter for C++ is now on by default, providing instant as-you-type suggestions and fix suggestions for common code defects.
- Updated to NDK r21 LTS in C++ Mobile Development workload.
- Added support for
gsl::not_null
to code analysis.
Razor (ASP.NET Core) Editor
- Reduced UI freezes and improved performance on solution startup
- Faster semantic colorization up to 2x in some solutions
- F7 (view code) support in Razor files
- Snippet support in razor files which will complete a snippet session with a single tab instead of pressing tab-tab
- Better formatting in @code blocks when there's nested HTML and Razor Components
Hot Reload Experiences
- XAML Hot Reload Changes - Minor changes to in-app toolbar and settings
- .NET/C++ Hot Reload - Various changes such as more supported edits, improvements for ASP.NET developers improvements to CTRL-F5 scenario and more. See below for details
- Known Issue: Apply changes appears to hang when making changes while debugger is attached
Test Experience
- Hot reload is now available in your test experience! Speed up your test runs by not requiring full builds in between test runs after minor code edits.
- Remote Testing - Debugging remote environments connected with docker and wsl is now available. You can also debug over SSH connections if you are connected to linux. For setup instructions see the details in the Preview 2 release notes.
User Interface
- As part of our goal to refresh the user interface for Visual Studio 2022, the default dark theme has been refreshed to improve contrast and assist in navigation and wayfinding.
- You can now sync your Visual Studio theme with your Windows OS theme - if you have a Light system theme, Visual Studio's theme will be Blue. If you have a Dark system theme, Visual Studio's theme will be Dark. This can be enabled via Tools > Options > General > Use system settings.