It's been a long time coming and now it's finally here

I've been holding off on buying Visual Studio 2022 standalone since its been announced that 2026 standalone IDE is gonna be available as of today but on the MS website it still takes you to the 2022 Version. What gives?

Long ago, I tried side-loading a preview version of Visual Studio with an older version on my machine, and it screwed up my dev environment. I was forced to reset and reinstall.

The new Visual Studio 2026 looks good! I wanted to try it, but my previous experience held me back.

Has anyone here tried sideloading it? Is there anything I should pay attention to?

I tried to download Visual Studio 2022 community edition but it would not let me. Is there some way to do this?

I expected fundamentally better user experience about vs2026, but it feels like it's the same slow thing with some rounded corners and different icons.

Apparently Microsoft has been removing all references and links to VS 2022 from pretty much everywhere in their websites. Even if you search for Visual Studio 2022, and download the (supposedly) 2022 installer, it will download the 2026 installer. They've made most VS2022 links redirect to 2026 ones.

Anyway, after a bit of digging in this subreddit I found the one working page that lets you download Visual Studio 2022, and I'm making it a post so that others can find it more easily.

Here's the link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/releases/2022/release-history

Community Version: https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vs_community.exe (or just scroll down to "Current 17.14")

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/visual-studio-2026-insiders-is-here/

download page:
https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/insiders/

Have you guys already switched to VS2026, or are you waiting for the full release? Is it worth it to already switch or are there still some breaking issues?

Sharing my experience with Visual Studio 2026 after one hour of usage:

I didn’t really feel like I was using a mature IDE — it feels more like something designed for kids to play with.

The overall design is uncomfortable compared to Visual Studio 2022.

And oh, the blue color! They removed my favorite theme and replaced it with nonsensical colors that strain your eyes after just a short time. Even the dark mode doesn’t make sense. I really don’t understand what happened with the theming — and it seems I’m not alone, as many people are complaining about the new look and color scheme.

Based on these concerns, I’d rather stick with Visual Studio 2022 than use what feels like a toy.

Anyone know when/where I can install VS 2026 Professional (RTM) rather than Insiders? I'd prefer to wait for the RTM version so I can use it for production development.

Update: freskgrank pointed me to the link. Installing RTM now :) Super exciting!

I rely on Visual Studio heavily, but VS2026 is extremely buggy, whereas VS2022 was stable for me. All kind of features stop working mid-use, like even search on text. When you experience it, you think you're losing your mind, like, "I swear I typed that right?!". And IDE hangs, of course.

As with much Microsoft software back in the day, my workaround has been: turn off the car, get out of the car, get back in the car, restart the engine.

I'm asking because I know I can't be the only one. And, well, misery loves company.

See the VS 2026 release notes for everything that's changed in the product, the MSVC compiler team's blog post about C++23 Core Language features (yes, they're finally working on C++23!), and as always, the STL Changelog's detailed summary of everything we merged for this release. I take great care to record every single commit that goes into the STL, excluding only README updates and utterly trivial or internal-only changes.

If you have questions or concerns about the product, I can typically get MSVC team members to respond directly here (and I can answer STL questions myself).

Edit: Shortly after I posted this, we also published What's New for C++ Developers in Visual Studio 2026 version 18.0 which covers C++-specific IDE features (and some overlapping mentions of compiler and library changes).

Recommended is 64 Gb RAM and 16 CPU Core. Wow!!! I can already feel the power.

Hello,

I created a new (free) Visual Studio 2019,2022 and 2026 extension which some of you may (or may not like.)

Unsure if I'm posting in the right place, so if not, my apologies - feel free to move or delete. It's the first VS extension I've created. (Hopefully more to come)

Here's the blurb.

The Problem

During a typical development session:

• Solution Explorer disappears offscreen or gets buried under other windows

• Tool windows (such as Solution Explorer, Github CoPilot, Test Explorer, Output window) accumulate until your workspace becomes cluttered

• You repeatedly open the same combinations of tool windows for specific tasks (debugging, profiling, database work, etc.)

The Solution

This extension provides flexible, stack-based tool window management:

Quick Access Commands

• Show Solution Explorer - Instantly bring Solution Explorer fully into view, even if it's offscreen

• Close All Tool Windows (except Solution Explorer) - Clean your workspace while preserving navigation

• Close All Tool Windows - Nuclear option for complete decluttering (code windows remain untouched)

Stash/Restore System (The Power Feature)

With this feature you can stash tool windows for showing or closing later.

I`m a .net developer (mainly working on WPF). With .NET 10 coming in November, will I need VS2026 to comfortably develop WPF applications for .NET 10?

For developers already using VS2026, could you tell me if some of the plugins (resharper, XAML styler, etc.) are already working properly? Otherwise, I'll probably have to stick with .NET 9 and VS2022 and wait and see.