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...