By Delia / Last update January 10, 2022

On January 5, Microsoft released the Visual Studio 2022 17.1 Preview 2, starting with the ability to more easily compare the current Git with other branches in a side-by-side view. The second is support for an enhanced Detached Head, where developers can check in commits, navigate to old points in the repository, and run them.

In addition, Preview 2 now allows for relatively faster evaluation of query requests and team updates, an enhanced multi-repository experience, and an IDE with the flexibility to perform lightweight branch management operations.

visual studio 2022 preview

At the same time, developers can now automatically create new branches in all active repositories instead of having to create each one manually. As for Line-staging, which is still in preview, developers are also provided with staging support for code blocks.

In terms of code management, code cleanup for explicit save operations can now be automated using custom cleanup profiles. It is worth mentioning that Visual Stuido can automatically save code when the window loses focus without triggering automatic code cleanup.

However, given that VS 2022 17.1 is still in Phase 2 preview, Microsoft is asking for active feedback on this topic.

.NET has also received productivity enhancements, allowing developers to place the cursor on the target payload and press the F12 function key to quickly navigate to the source file.

visual studio net productivity

The newly added Stack Trace Explorer window allows developers to easily navigate to relevant code, and Naming Styles have been edited into the EditorConfig UI, making it 22% faster to find all references in C++ projects.

Embedded developers who need to use C++ in Visual Studio also now have an expanded view of support for interacting with real-time operating system (RTOS) objects and peripheral registers on microcontrollers.

For macOS developers, Microsoft is simplifying the feature experience for debugging with LLDB and the IDE will automatically specify the macOS default configuration during CMake.

Finally, there is the Colors tab. Visual Studio 2022 already utilizes a default color scheme, but now users are free to choose different colors to distinguish between different projects and file extensions.