An Insider build for Visual Studio 2026 is now available

We recently learned that Microsoft is working on a major upgrade for Visual Studio, headlined by AI capabilities. In the past few months, the company has been adding AI capabilities to the integrated development environment (IDE) on a regular basis, while also allowing users to tone some of them down. Now, Microsoft has unveiled Visual Studio 2026 with an Insider build, a first for the IDE.

As expected, AI is a major component of this version, and Microsoft boasts that it is "woven" directly into development workflows. The firm claims that Visual Studio 2026 is very proficient in understanding new codebases, while ensuring that your comments and documentation stay in lockstep with any updates.

Generated code snippets will adapt to the existing conventions in the codebase, with AI-powered code reviews helping developers write efficient and secure code. The idea is that AI will write code for you, while you will be responsible for making judgment calls.

Visual Studio 2026 also packs major performance improvements over its predecessor. The Redmond tech giant has promised improvements across both x64 and Arm64 architectures, highlighting faster first launches, efficient handling of big projects, and a shorter timespan between ideation and a running piece of software.

Notably, the new IDE also features a design revamp that is cleaner and more modern. Microsoft has emphasized "crisper lines, improved iconography, and better spacing of visual elements". Nested configurations should be more accessible, and managing extensions along with themes should be easier too.

Visual Studio 2026 is available for the first time as an Insider release rather than a Preview Channel rollout. That said, it's not exactly clear what this difference entails. Regardless, you can check out the latest release notes here and download the Visual Studio 2026 Insider build here.

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Posted Wednesday 10 September 2025 at 1:10 pm AEST (my time).

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