Visual Studio's July 2026 update introduces a new Agent (Preview) in Copilot Chat, built on the GitHub Copilot SDK for a more consistent experience across Copilot surfaces including CLI, VS Code, and Visual Studio. Built-in .NET and Azure skills authored by Microsoft teams are now available in the tool picker. Organization owners can set custom instructions that apply automatically across all team members. Branches can now be attached as context in Copilot Chat. C++ builds gain opt-in auto-discovery of pinned MSVC toolset versions across multiple Visual Studio installations via the EnableVCToolsVersionDiscovery property.
Table of contents
Try the new Agent (Preview) Copy linkBuilt-in .NET and Azure skills Copy linkOrganization-level custom instructions Copy linkAttach branches to Copilot Chat Copy linkMSVC Build Tools auto-discovery across installations Copy link15.3K Impressions