C++ Team Blog
The latest in C++, Visual Studio, VS Code, and vcpkg from the MSFT C++ team
Latest posts
Take the 2026 ISO C++ Developer Survey!
The 2026 ISO C++ developer survey is now open: 2026 Annual C++ Developer Survey "Lite" : Standard C++ It takes about 10 minutes and directly informs the standardization committee and tooling vendors so the C++ ecosystem can continue evolving the right way. Please share your feedback and share with your colleagues!
C++ Code Intelligence for GitHub Copilot CLI (Preview)
We recently brought C++ code understanding tools to GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio and VS Code. These tools provide precise, semantic understanding of your C++ code to GitHub Copilot using the same IntelliSense engine that powers code navigation in the IDE. Until now, these capabilities have been tied to GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio and VS Code. Today, we’re bringing this same intelligence to the CLI with the release of the Microsoft C++ Language Server for GitHub Copilot CLI, now available in Preview. Why this matters C++ is difficult for tools to reason about: complex include hierarchies, macros, template...
MSVC Build Tools Version 14.51 Release Candidate Now Available
Try out the final preview of MSVC Build Tools v14.51
C++23 Support in MSVC Build Tools 14.51
We’re pleased to provide an update on C++23 support in the Microsoft C++ (MSVC) Build Tools. This blog post will cover the feature additions in MSVC Build Tools version 14.51, including C++23 language features, libraries, and ISO C++ Core Working Group (CWG) and Library Working Group (LWG) Issue resolutions. We’ll also discuss the plans for completion of C++23 support in the MSVC compiler and how to make use of these latest feature updates. C++23 Language Features The following C++23 language features are now available under and in the MSVC Build Tools 14.51 Preview. An update of the documentation on learn.mi...
What’s New in vcpkg (Feb 2026 – Mar 2026): Parallel file installation and more!
These updates include a security fix for OpenSSL packaging on Windows, parallel file installation for improved performance, and other improvements and bug fixes.
Visual Studio at GDC Festival of Gaming 2026
Join us at GDC Festival of Gaming 2026 for a deep dive into Visual Studio, GitHub Copilot, PowerToys, and the Windows tools that speed up your daily dev workflow. We'll show how these tools work together to boost productivity and cut friction across your entire inner loop. Session Title: Windows Game Development with Visual Studio 2026 and GitHub Copilot Session Info: Thursday, March 12, 10:10 am - 11:10 am Pacific Time | Room 2009, West Hall Abstract: Developing games on Windows is faster when your tools work together. This session walks through an end-to-end game development workflow, from setting ...
C++ Performance Improvements in MSVC Build Tools v14.51
MSVC Build Tools v14.51 improves performance through a wide range of new optimizations.
C++ symbol context and CMake build configuration awareness for GitHub Copilot in VS Code
C++ code navigation and build system tooling play an important role in the developer inner-loop. Code navigation tooling provides a precise, semantic understanding of your codebase, while build system tooling helps you express build configurations and variants for reproducible builds. In the VS Code ecosystem, these powerful capabilities are available through our C/C++ and CMake Tools extensions. With the latest updates to GitHub Copilot in VS Code, we're bringing the same C++-specific intelligence directly into agent mode by surfacing key language and build system capabilities as tools the agent can invoke. T...
Microsoft C++ (MSVC) Build Tools v14.51 Preview Released: How to Opt In
Today we are releasing the first preview of the Microsoft C++ (MSVC) Build Tools version 14.51. This update, shipping in the latest Visual Studio 2026 version 18.4 Insiders release, introduces many C++23 conformance changes, bug fixes, and runtime performance improvements. Check out the release notes for an in-progress list of what’s new. Conformance improvements and bug fixes will be detailed in an upcoming blog post and Insiders release notes in the near future. We plan to ship more frequent, incremental MSVC Build Tools previews, just as we are shipping more frequent IDE updates. As a result, we have adjust...
What’s New in vcpkg (Nov 2025 – Jan 2026)
This blog post summarizes changes to the vcpkg package manager as part of the 2025.12.12 and 2026.01.16 registry releases and the 2025-11-13, 2025-11-18, 2025-11-19, 2025-12-05, and 2025-12-16 tool releases. These updates include support for targeting the Xbox GDK October 2025 update, removing a misleading and outdated output message, and other minor improvements and bug fixes. Some stats for this period: vcpkg changelog (2025.12.12, 2026.01.16 releases) Total ports available for tested triplets While vcpkg supports a much larger variety of target platforms ...
MSVC Build Tools Versions 14.30 – 14.43 Now Available in Visual Studio 2026
When Visual Studio 2026 reached General Availability in November, it included several versions of the Microsoft C++ (MSVC) Build Tools: To make it easier to bring your Visual Studio 2022 projects to Visual Studio 2026, we are now including all the versions of MSVC that shipped in Visual Studio 2022 version 17.0 and later to the Visual Studio 2026 installer. This includes MSVC versions 14.30 – 14.43 and x64/x86 and ARM64/ARM64EC build targets. This change also addresses a request from our users on Visual Studio Developer Community. With these new options in the installer, you can tr...
GitHub Copilot app modernization for C++ is now in Public Preview
With the launch of Visual Studio 2026, we announced a Private Preview of GitHub Copilot app modernization for C++, which reduces the cost of adopting the latest version of the MSVC Build Tools. We used the feedback we received from our many Private Preview participants to make improvements that benefit all our users. After receiving feedback, we added support for CMake projects, reduced hallucinations, removed several critical failures, improved Copilot’s behavior when encountering an internal compiler error, and reinforced Copilot’s understanding of when project files need to be modified to do the upgrade. He...
Visual Studio Code CMake Tools 1.22: Target bookmarks and better CTest output
We're excited to announce the latest 1.22 release of the CMake Tools extension for Visual Studio Code. This update brings a host of new additions, including project outline updates for filtering and bookmarking CMake targets in large CMake projects and expanded CTest support to customize this output. To view the full list of updates with this release, please look at our CHANGELOG. This release features the following contributions from our open-source community. Thank you for your continued support! Project Outline view updates: Filter and bookmark your CMake Targets Naviga...
Now in Public Preview: GitHub Copilot build performance for Windows
Last year, we launched our new GitHub Copilot build performance capabilities in Private Preview. With help from our fantastic C++ community, we gathered insights and addressed key feedback. We’re happy to share that GitHub Copilot build performance for Windows is now in Public Preview. Today, all C++ developers can try out the new capabilities in the latest Visual Studio 2026 Insiders. “I've tried the feature for a few hours and I'm happily impressed. The agent provided accurate suggestions, implemented them, and managed to reduce my build time by about 20%." - Alessandro Vergani, ARGO Vision Optimizing Bui...
C++ code editing tools for GitHub Copilot: now in Public Preview
In November, we introduced C++ code editing tools for GitHub Copilot as a Private Preview, focusing on partnering with customers to tackle one of the common, taxing challenges for C++ development: refactoring at scale. Since then, we've listened to feedback and refined our tooling to make wide-sweeping C++ edits easier. "With C++ code editing tools for GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio, we've seen noticeably better overall results, with fewer errors and faster processing on large projects." - Software engineer (from our Private Preview) We're excited to announce that C++ code editing tools for GitHub Copilot are ...
New release cadence and support lifecycle for Microsoft C++ Build Tools
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 both worlds – rapid iteration in the IDE and predictable, long-term stability for the build tools. This approach brings you the latest C++ advancements across both IDE and build tools while helping you maintain secure and compliant build environments, with enterprise-grade support, and fle...
Introducing MSVC AddressSanitizer for ARM64 targets
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 production use, this support now extends to ARM64. The feature is currently in preview, so there may be build, runtime, or IDE integration issues. Cross-compiling for ARM64 targets from x86 or x64 hosts...
Perform wide-sweeping refactors using C++ code editing tools for GitHub Copilot
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, which understands your intent and can carry out codebase-wide edits, reducing the manual effort required to perform these refactors. To make this experience even more powerful for C++ developers, we’re introducing C++ Code Editing Tools f...