The new version 2022 17.12.1 of Microsoft’s Visual Studio development environment offers improved analysis and debugging features. Many are linked to the Copilot AI to simplify developers’ daily tasks. One of the most requested features is the inline display of values that a function will return in the code. This display is implemented and appears in gray directly under the respective return expression. When hovering over it with the mouse, more information and the Copilot icon appear. Clicking on it, the AI analyzes the expression in a side window and provides hints on possible errors.
Visual Studio now shows a gray inline preview of the values a function returns. Copilot also supports the analysis of variable values in the Auto and Locals debugger windows. Here, next to the variable’s value preview, the AI icon appears for further error analysis. The AI assistant is only announced for the IEnumerable Visualizer tool. However, it now offers IntelliSense with syntax highlighting for LINQ queries.
Another new feature of the debugger is the import and export of Breakpoint Groups, including their configurations, for consistent breakpoint management across different parts of a project. The Diagnostics Tool now supports snapshots to compare memory states. Developers need to take two snapshots in the Memory tab for comparison. The tool then shows the differences with a click on “View Diff.” The diagnostic window now visualizes histogram data.
With snapshots, memory usage can be compared. The debugging features, described in detail by Microsoft in a blog post, are only part of the new features of 2022 17.12. The version comes with .NET 9 and offers more AI integration than before, particularly in debugging and fixing code. The UI allows starting different configurations of the program, depending on the project. Users can also copy files between different instances of the program.
Other new features include developers working with multiple GitHub accounts and creating local repositories with Visual Studio. Copilot’s commit messages can be further specified individually. On Linux, it is now possible to publish WebJobs on Azure. HTTP files recognize request variables, allowing responses to be used in further requests. Finally, command-line arguments in C++ can now be set directly in the toolbar.
A complete overview is provided in the release notes.