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

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.

Has anyone obtained a free activation key for Visual Studio pro 2026?

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.

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.

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?

Read all about it in the announcement blog post, check out the release notes, and download Visual Studio 2026 Insiders.

I hope you will try it out and have a good time with it.

For a beginner looking to acquire skills on a "keeper" platform. My first NEGATIVE impressions from a beginner's perspective after a brief try:

Rider / IntelliJ: modern and responsive, top-class support for most languages, scariest settings section I've ever seen. Every possible knob including the most obscure ones is in.

VS: Practically a C#-only marriage; skill, layout and keymap don't transfer well. Old platform with new UI but a dated codebase underneath (for example, no UI scaling).

VSCode: Modern similar to IntelliJ, attractive at first sight for its stripped down and essential style, but recurring opinion is that it is more headaches / trouble that it's worth because of the non-specialist nature.

I don't see it as simple as "try and see if you like it" because mapping a behemot-size software into one's mind takes weeks or months (+ other things to do).

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?

Previous versions of Visual Studio had options to purchase it.

I couldn't find any options this time. Does anyone know if I couldn't find it because I didn't search hard enough, or if it no longer exists?

(Wrong flair, I know, the one for 2026 does not exist yet)

Previous versions of Visual Studio had options to purchase it.

I couldn't find any options this time. Does anyone know if I couldn't find it because I didn't search hard enough, or if it no longer exists?

(Wrong flair, I know, the one for 2026 does not exist yet)

Downloaded the insiders edition earlier today at work to test it out, we have very large solutions where debugging becomes quite laggy and hogs a large amount of ram on vs2022. Even ctrl t code search is laggy and vsvim is also delayed. Pretty shitty experience but ive been dealing with it anyways.

However when i switched to vs2026 these issues went away and it was almost as smooth as using an actual text editor. Debugging was fast and generally moving around and using different ide features was also quick and clean

I was wondering if anyone had a similar experience or how they are finding it?

I did see the reccomended spec being upped to 64gb but from one of the vs devs in this sub i realised it was for ops to buy better dev laptops (which is pretty neat)

Yay, more AI!!!!!! (Good lord, I hope we'll be able to turn it off)

its getting bloated and clogged again after a few new versions.

anyone noticing it ?

when it first launched the performance was so better than the 2022.

Hi, im a begginer in c++, currently im learning c++ in UDEMY with vs2022 (my course is in vs2022) but i just realize that vs2026 is available, my question is... should i buy another course to focus in this New versión or should i still learning in that course of vs2022? I just have 2 months learning c++, and i want to be an Unreal Engine video game developer 🥹, thanks you all.