New Code Completion Controls

GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio now supports partial code completion acceptance, allowing developers to accept only the portion of a suggestion they need with a single click. Hover over completions to see highlighted segments, then click to accept up to your cursor position—or use Ctrl + right arrow for word-by-word navigation. Code completions also now display syntax highlighting with lower opacity and italic styling to visually distinguish suggestions from existing code.

Enhanced Chat and Memory Features

Copilot now supports memories that learn and consistently apply your coding standards across all chat sessions. The system automatically detects preferences as you chat and can save them to personal or repository-level instructions. A new slash command system (/) enables quick invocation of custom prompts, with two new commands—/generateInstructions and /savePrompt—that help create repository standards and save reusable prompts. Chat-generated markdown can now be previewed directly in Visual Studio's markdown editor before saving.

Specialized Agents for .NET and C++

Several new purpose-built agents expand Copilot's capabilities:

• WinForms Expert: Provides comprehensive guidance on modern WinForms development, including designer patterns, .NET 8–10 best practices, layout guidance, CodeDOM serialization, and exception handling
• @BuildPerfCpp: Uses Build Insights to identify and fix C++ build performance issues (public preview)
• @Modernize: Helps update C++ projects to the latest MSVC versions and resolve upgrade issues (public preview)
• @Test: Enhanced for creating and refining unit tests in C# with xUnit, NUnit, and MSTest support

Debugging and Performance Analysis

A new Analyze Call Stack button in the Call Stack window sends your debug state directly to Copilot for instant analysis. Copilot explains pause reasons, identifies waiting threads, and annotates relevant frames in both sync and async stacks. The @profiler agent now discovers and leverages existing unit tests to measure performance, making validation of optimizations more practical across diverse scenarios including C++ projects.

Additional Improvements

A built-in NuGet MCP server helps identify and fix package vulnerabilities, update to compatible versions, or target specific versions through natural language queries. All features are available now in Visual Studio 2026—download from visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads and review the release notes for full details.