C++ Team Blog

Starting with Visual Studio 2026, we are introducing a new support lifecycle for the Microsoft C++ (MSVC) Build Tools. We are also updating the MSVC release cadence. As Visual Studio moves to a Modern Lifecycle with monthly feature updates and an annual new version, decoupling the compiler from the IDE offers you the best of The post New release cadence and support lifecycle for Microsoft C++ Build Tools appeared first on C++ Team Blog.

We are pleased to announce AddressSanitizer (ASan) support for the Microsoft C++ (MSVC) Build Tools for ARM64 targets. ASan is a runtime memory error detector that identifies difficult-to-find bugs with zero false positives and improves memory safety. More technical information on ASan can be found at aka.ms/asan.  ASan has long supported the x64 and x86 architectures. With the release of Visual Studio 2026 for The post Introducing MSVC AddressSanitizer for ARM64 targets appeared first on C++ Team Blog.

Refactoring a C++ codebase can often require tracking updates across various sections of multiple files to ensure accuracy and relevancy.  Historically, developers have relied on manual searches across a codebase and refactoring tools to perform these types of edits. However, with GitHub Copilot agents, developers can now delegate these complex editing tasks to the agent, The post Perform wide-sweeping refactors using C++ code editing tools for GitHub Copilot appeared first on C++ Team Blog.

Long build times are one of the top pain points for C++ projects. If you’ve ever waited too long for a C++ build to finish, you know how much it can slow down your productivity. In past years, we introduced C++ Build Insights to help you analyze traces and find bottlenecks. However, we know that The post Optimize Your C++ Build Times with GitHub Copilot appeared first on C++ Team Blog.

A few problems have reared their heads at every company where I’ve worked on C++ as a Software Engineer over the past 20 years. For the most part, those problems have nothing to do with the language and how it is used, but instead all the “other” stuff, like dealing with long build times, getting The post Fix build issues using GitHub Copilot after upgrading MSVC Build Tools appeared first on C++ Team Blog.

Get ready to level up your C++ productivity, because Visual Studio 2026 version 18.0 is now generally available! You can take advantage of the new features, bug fixes, and performance improvements in your production environment. This post describes what’s new for C++ developers, including new features or improvements in these areas: A refreshed IDE UI The post What’s New for C++ Developers in Visual Studio 2026 version 18.0 appeared first on C++ Team Blog.

vcpkg, an open-source C/C++ package manager maintained by Microsoft, is increasingly recognized as a leading dependency management solution. As an enterprise-grade tool, it enables organizations to streamline library imports, reduce duplication, and support flexible, reproducible builds across a wide array of environments. This need for streamlined dependency management is especially relevant in the build system The post Inside Visual Studio: Improving Open-Source Workflows with vcpkg appeared first on C++ Team Blog.

This blog post summarizes changes to the vcpkg package manager as part of the 2025.10.17 registry release, the 2025-10-10 and 2025-10-16 tool releases, as well as changes to vcpkg documentation throughout October. This month’s updates includes partial support for Visual Studio 2026 and platform toolset v145, NetBSD platform support, and minor improvements and bug fixes. The post What’s New in vcpkg (October 2025) appeared first on C++ Team Blog.

Another year and another CppCon is all wrapped up! Microsoft was pleased to once again be an exhibitor and to have several of our employees present sessions at the conference. Here are my major takeaways from the keynotes, sessions, conversations, and the general vibe. AI tooling is finding a footing with the C++ community. The The post Microsoft C++ Team at CppCon 2025: Trip Report appeared first on C++ Team Blog.

With Visual Studio 2026 version 18.0 getting closer to General Availability (GA), we want to share with you how you can upgrade your projects from your current versions of Visual Studio and the Microsoft C++ (MSVC) Build Tools to the latest versions. The new IDE ships with the v145 platform toolset for MSBuild C++ projects The post Upgrading C++ Projects to Visual Studio 2026 appeared first on C++ Team Blog.