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Microsoft Visual Studio Premium Changelog

What's new in Microsoft Visual Studio Premium 2013 12.0.40418.0 Update 5 RC

Apr 30, 2015
  • Current iteration query token:
  • You now can run queries in Visual Studio with the @currentIteration token that you create by using Visual Studio Online or Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2015.

New in Microsoft Visual Studio Premium 2013 12.0.40302.0 Update 5 CTP 3 (Mar 10, 2015)

  • Technology improvements - debugger:
  • Capturing depth buffers on version 9.3 hardware is now supported. This enables support for graphics debugging Unity-based applications that run on Windows Phone.
  • Fixed bugs:
  • Visual Studio IDE:
  • After you install Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Update 4, a critical notification in the Notification Hub indicates that you must obtain or renew a developer license. If you dismiss this notice, and then you open another project, the critical notification appears again.
  • Assume that you have installed Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 on your computer. When you build a Windows Store application that requires WinRT registrations, you may receive the System.TypeLoadException exception at runtime.
  • Team Foundation Server:
  • Assume that you have a SharePoint document whose name contains too many Unicode characters. When you try to open the document from Team Explorer, the document opens incorrectly.
  • Git:
  • When you download changes in a remote repository, your configuration file is replaced by a specially crafted file. Your configuration file resides outside the repository. By replacing this file with a bad file, the Git commands can be remapped in order to execute arbitrary commands that run under your credentials. In this situation, a bad file is introduced into the Git repository.

New in Microsoft Visual Studio Premium 2013 12.0.40121.0 Update 5 CTP 2 (Jan 27, 2015)

  • Includes adding support for graphics debugging of Unity-based applications on Windows Phone, and making fixes in the IDE, Team Foundation Server, and Git support.

New in Microsoft Visual Studio Premium 2013 12.0.31206.0 Update 5 CTP (Dec 19, 2014)

  • TECHNOLOGY IMPROVEMENTS:
  • Debugger - Capturing depth buffers on version 9.3 hardware is now supported. This enables support for graphics debugging Unity-based applications that run on Windows Phone.
  • FIXED ISSUES:
  • Visual Studio IDE - After you install Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Update 4, a critical notification in the Notification Hub indicates that you must obtain or renew a developer license. If you dismiss this notice, and then you open another project, the critical notification appears again.

New in Microsoft Visual Studio Premium 2013 12.0.31101.0 Update 4 (Nov 14, 2014)

  • CODELENS:
  • With CodeLens indicators you can learn about your code while staying focused on your work. You can find code references, changes to your code, related TFS items, and unit tests – all without looking away from the code.
  • Reduced data storage requirements for CodeLens with TFVC:
  • The size of CodeLens data stored in the TFS database has been reduced. The data has been reformatted and duplicated information removed.
  • By default, CodeLens now only processes changes from the last 12 months to calculate team indicators. You can change this duration by using the TFSConfig CodeIndex command.
  • C++ DIAGNOSTICS:
  • GPU Usage:
  • A new GPU Usage tool in the Performance and Diagnostics hub helps you determine whether the CPU or the GPU is the performance bottleneck. This tool lets you collect and analyze GPU usage data for DirectX applications.
  • You can use this tool for both Windows Desktop and Windows Store apps; support for Windows Phone and remote diagnostics will ship in a later release. You can also inspect the timing of each individual GPU event if a supported graphics card is present and latest drivers are installed.
  • Faster browsing:
  • Visual Studio now scans or rescans large solutions and updates the symbol database more quickly. Browsing should be more responsive, and operations such as Go To Definition should not be blocked, even if the database has not been completely updated. A non-blocking message will warn you that your results may be inaccurate.
  • JAVASCRIPT INTELLISENSE:
  • You can now get IntelliSense in JavaScript modules loaded with RequireJS.
  • MICROSOFT ASP.NET AND WEB TOOLS:
  • JSON Editor Improvements:
  • We made a few improvements in the JSON editor, including loading the JSON schema asynchronously, caching child schemas, and improving IntelliSense. We also have the following new features:
  • JSON Schema validation. We added a JSON schema validation feature, based on the schema selected in the drop-down list.
  • Un-minify the context menu button. You can right-click the JSON editor and select Un-minify context menu button to un-minify any long arrays in the JSON file.
  • The Reload Schemas context menu button. Visual Studio caches the schema downloaded from internet, and will use the cache even after you restart Visual Studio. If you know the schema has changed, you can use the context menu to download the changed schema in the active JSON document and use it immediately.
  • HTML Editor Improvements:
  • We improved the HTML editor with some bug fixes, updated IntelliSense for web standards, and introduced the following new features:
  • Better client template formatting. The HTML editor no longer parses or formats double-curly syntax {{…}}, so we don’t flag the content as invalid HTML or try to format it as HTML. This is great for Angular, Handlebars, Mustache and other double-curly template syntaxes.
  • Support for custom elements, polymer-elements and attributes.
  • We no longer validate unknown attributes for custom elements, because there can be many custom-made tags in different frameworks. There will no longer be squiggles under the unknown elements.
  • HTML element tooltips. We now supply tooltips for HTML elements in the editor.
  • #region support. The HTML editor now supports region folding. You can use a surrounding snippet to surround the current selection as well.
  • viewport fix for the LESS editor. In the LESS editor, @viewport no longer shows verification warnings.
  • Many more snippets. We now provide more snippets to make your developing experience easier.
  • CSS auto-sync. Saving the CSS file or changing it externally (for example, with a LESS/SASS compiler) causes the whole CSS file to reload in the browser. If the file couldn’t auto-sync, Ctrl+S causes an automatic reload without needing to refresh the linked browsers(Ctrl+Alt+Enter). This feature can be disabled in the toolbar.
  • Azure WebJobs:
  • In Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 we’re releasing some new features that will make it easier than ever to build, deploy, and debug Azure WebJobs, and to add background processing to Azure Websites. WebJobs are now represented as nodes in the Visual Studio Server Explorer, so you can link directly to the WebJobs dashboards to see how your WebJobs are running. You can also use the Server Explorer to start and stop continuous jobs and run on-demand or scheduled jobs. We’ve also enabled one-click remote debugging of continuous WebJobs, so if you need to see how your continuous WebJob is processing incoming queues or blob messages, you can step through your code as it’s running live in the cloud.
  • WebJobs SDK:
  • The WebJobs SDK is pre-installed in the Azure WebJob project templates. As before, you can create a new WebJob project using the Azure WebJob project template.
  • ASP.NET MVC 5.2.2:
  • Template packages are updated to use ASP.NET MVC 5.2.2. This release doesn’t have any new features or bug fixes in MVC. We made a change in Web Pages for a significant performance improvement, and have updated all other dependent packages we own to depend on this new version of Web Pages.
  • ASP.NET Web API 5.2.2:
  • In this release we have made a dependency change for Json.Net 6.0.4. Get more details about what's new in this release of Json.NET 6.0 Release 4. This release doesn’t have any other new features or bug fixes in Web API. We have subsequently updated all other dependent packages we own to depend on this new version of Web API.
  • ASP.NET Web API OData 5.3.1 beta
  • SignalR 2.1.2:
  • Template packages are updated to use SignalR 2.1.2.
  • Microsoft Owin 3.0 package:
  • Template packages are updated to use Microsoft Owin 3.0 NuGet packages.
  • APPLICATION INSIGHTS:
  • With Update 4, Application Insights Tools for Visual Studio has more performance improvements and bug fixes. It is fully compatible with projects that had Application Insights added with Visual Studio 2013.3. This update includes:
  • Seamless integration with the workflow to publish to an Azure website
  • Improved solution integration and project detection. (For example, Application Insights is no longer included in unsupported projects like Python.)
  • DEVELOPER LICENSE RENEWAL:
  • When your developer license is within 15 days of expiring, you will start to see a new notification in the notification hub. Click the notification when you’re ready to renew your license, and then click I Agree on the renewal window. You must have an internet connection to renew your license. After your license expires, you won’t be able to debug or deploy your Windows Store apps, or open the XAML or HTML designers.
  • RELEASE MANAGEMENT:
  • Improve the process of managing the release of your app. Deploy your app to a specific environment for each separate stage. Manage the steps in the process with approvals for each step. Get started with Release Management.
  • You can create release templates that use deployment agents to deploy your app, or you can create release templates that use Windows PowerShell, Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC), or Chef. To help you know which type of release you are setting up, terms have been added to the UI to make your choices clearer: agent-based or vNext (without agents). This simply helps you identify that you are using the correct environments and components for your release templates and release paths.
  • Release to Azure from Visual Studio:
  • You can now create a release definition directly from within the Visual Studio IDE using Release Management as a service with a Visual Studio Online account. You must use an Azure subscription to deploy to your Azure VMs with this release definition.
  • Use tags when you deploy to an environment:
  • Now you can use tags with the servers in your Azure or standard environments when you deploy without agents. For example, if you have multiple web servers in your environment then you can tag them all with WebServer. Set up your deployment actions for your tags. When a stage is deployed, these actions are performed on any server with this tag. So you only have to create the set of actions once for multiple servers.
  • With tags you can also switch the deployment order from parallel to sequence.
  • Access to system variables for your deployment sequences or scripts:
  • By popular user demand, you can now access system variables just like other configuration variables and use them in your release template if you deploy without agents. You don't have to hardcode these any more.
  • Supported variables:
  • Build directory
  • Build number (for component in the release)
  • Build definition (for component)
  • TFS URL (for component)
  • Team project (for component)
  • Tag (for server which is running the action)
  • Application path (destination path where component is copied)
  • Environment (for stage)
  • Stage
  • Release id
  • Release name
  • Reduce the need for configuration files to deploy your builds:
  • If you deploy without using agents, you can now set up configuration variables for your release at the following levels: global, server, component, action. This extra flexibility means you might no longer need to maintain configuration files with your build. If variables have the same name, the value is determined based on this order of precedence: action, component, server, global. (Action has the highest precedence to override the other values).
  • Manual intervention for a release path:
  • Now you can add manual steps to a stage in any release path, even if you deploy without agents. Add a manual intervention activity into your deployment sequence. When the notification is triggered in that sequence, the deployment pauses and you can run some manual steps before continuing with the rest of the automation for the release path.
  • Build drops stored on TFS servers:
  • If you have set up your build definition to copy the build output to the server and not a UNC path, you can now use these builds that are stored on the server if you deploy your app without agents.
  • Deploy from a build drop using a shared UNC path:
  • You can now use Release Management to deploy to servers using build drops located on a shared UNC path. You can deploy only if both the target server and the Release Management server have access to the shared UNC path, and you deploy your app without deployment agents.
  • Usability improvements:
  • You can now select servers and components from the drop-down list in the action for all types of release templates. You can also give actions friendly names to make it easier to identify them.
  • Mix and match Azure and standard environments:
  • Previously for a release path that deployed to servers without agents, each stage in the path could only use either all Azure environments or all standard environments. Now you can mix and match your environments. For example, your test stage might deploy to an Azure environment, but your production stage deploys to on-premises production servers using standard environments.
  • Find out quickly if a test case belongs to other test suites:
  • As test cases can belong to more than one test suite, it's good to check if there are any other associated test suites before you make changes to a test case. Now you can quickly view all the test suites associated with a test case.
  • View recent test results for a test case:
  • Quickly see the test result history for a test case to see if it has passed or failed recently. Just select the test case, view the details pane, and choose test results.
  • Real-time lightweight charts to show testing status:
  • Now you can create snapshot and trend charts for test cases from the Charts tab in the test hub. You can also create snapshot charts for test results. Pin these charts to your home page so that all the team can see the test status.
  • Filter by tags in the test hub:
  • Tag test cases in a suite with any tag that is important to you. For example, tag all the tests related to login so that you can rerun these tests if a bug is fixed for the login page. Then you can filter on that tag from the test hub. You can add and edit tags when you edit a test case, or bulk edit tags in the grid view.
  • VERSION CONTROL:
  • Review and merge code with Git pull requests:
  • Pull requests are a critical component of the developer workflow in Git. Now developers can use pull requests to help review and merge their code. Pull requests enable developers working in branches to get feedback on their changes from other developers before adding their code into the mainline. Any developer participating in the review can see the code changes, leave comments in the code, and give a “thumbs up” approval.
  • Plan and track work:
  • The many small improvements to Team Foundation Server (TFS) with Update 4 help make it easier for you to use our tools to get your work done faster.
  • Visualize trends and aggregate field values:
  • Query-based chart authoring now includes trend charts: Stacked Area, Area, and Line. You can visualize trends across a one-week, two-week, or four-week time range. Also, in addition to field counts, you can now sum a field value across work items returned in a flat-list query. These new chart types can be pinned to your home pages too. Learn more about how to view the status of your progress.
  • Quickly reorder backlog items:
  • If you had a large backlog, it was hard to drag and drop items to a different position. The context menu for backlog items now contains options to move an item directly to the top or to a specific position in the backlog. Be aware that with this change, we removed the field that tracks backlog priority from the work item forms in the default TFS process templates.
  • Full screen mode support for backlog views, boards, queries:
  • If you’re running a daily standup or viewing large backlogs, it's useful to be able to maximize the screen space and see as many items at once. Now you can hide all the chrome in the UI and have full-screen views of the backlog and boards. The toggle to enter full screen mode works for all the pages under the Backlogs and Queries tabs in the Work hub. Press ESC to return to the full work item view.
  • Full screen mode support for all HTML/rich-text fields:
  • You can now enter full screen mode for rich-text fields to help improve the readability and usability. For example, the Steps to Reproduce field can be maximized as shown below. The button toggles the text area between full screen mode and the work item view. Press ESC to return to the full work item view.
  • Better triage experience:
  • To improve the triage experience when you review query results, you can go back to the query by pressing Alt+Q. This keeps your position in the query
  • Assign backlog items to iterations within hierarchical views:
  • From hierarchical views, you can now assign product backlog items to iterations with drag and drop
  • In-line search for area and iteration fields from the work item form:
  • Often when triaging or assigning work items it’s necessary to change the area and/or the iteration path. Finding the path you want in large, deeply nested trees can be difficult. With inline search, values that match what you type are instantly highlighted. For example, type Team to highlight all path entries that contain the work Team in their name
  • Open hyperlinks quickly:
  • If you have a hyperlinks defined within an HTML field, press the CTRL key and click the link. Previously it was a two step process to click the link, and then click the “navigate to…” command at the top of the text area.
  • Teams choose whether or not to track bugs on their backlog:
  • Teams now have greater flexibility in how they track bugs. While team projects created with the Scrum process template include bug tracking on the backlog, other process templates don't. Each team can now choose to view the bugs with the product backlog or turn off including them.
  • Work item form enhancements:
  • Track work and share information more easily using some of the new features listed below and highlighted in the work item form pictured.
  • Send a nicely formatted email directly from the work item form using the new email icon.
  • Return directly to the query result you navigated from. If you like to use the keyboard, press ALT+Q. Or you can use the browser back button to do the same thing. This keeps your position in the query.
  • Enter full screen mode from all queries and all work items. Just click the command in the toolbar to remove all the chrome and maximize your screen real estate.
  • Open a work item in a new browser tab with the context menu command for query results.
  • Copy and paste of query results now formats the results much better for pasting into email or a document.
  • More items in your Kanban board:
  • There is no longer a hard limit on the number of items in the first and last columns of the Kanban board. Now you can configure this limit to have up to 999 items.
  • Easier way to link work items:
  • In Visual Studio, there has always been a dialog box to find a work item that you want to link to, but with Team Web Access you could only type the work item ID to find it. With Update 4, you get a similar dialog box to find the work item you want to link to. You can run an existing query or find the work item based by searching for its title.
  • ACCESS LEVEL NAME CHANGES AND FEATURE ACCESS:
  • With Update 4, all access levels have been renamed. The new names correspond to the same names used for Visual Studio Online licensing.
  • Stakeholder (previously was Limited)
  • Basic (previously was Standard)
  • Advanced (previously was Full)
  • With this change, the feature set support for the Stakeholder access has been enhanced. Stakeholders have access to the project home page and most of the “work” related functionality. This includes the ability to view the backlog, add and edit items, run work item queries and more.
  • Any number of users can be assigned a stakeholder license at no charge.
  • MICROSOFT SQL SERVER DATABASE TOOLING FOR VISUAL STUDIO:
  • These are the added features for Update 4:
  • SQL Server 2014 is now supported.
  • Schema compare supports MSBuild with text and XML output.
  • Token-based authentication for Azure SQL Database node in Server Explorer is supported - for Microsoft accounts and organizational accounts.
  • From the Azure Preview Portal for Microsoft Azure SQL databases, you can now open the database schema directly in Visual Studio.
  • Extensibility for Static Code Analysis.
  • Filtering for the editable data grid.
  • Save your data compare settings to a file (.dcmp).
  • Additional actions are available when you connect to the TSQL editor.
  • PDW tools are now part of Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Desktop

New in Microsoft Visual Studio Premium 2013 12.0.20617.1 Preview (Jun 27, 2013)

  • Visual Studio Languages:
  • .NET Framework 4.5.1:
  • Now, when you compile an app that targets the .NET Framework 4.5.1, you can add binding redirects to the app configuration file if your app or its components reference multiple versions of the same assembly. For more information, see How to: Enable and Disable Automatic Binding Redirection.
  • Visual C++:
  • New features include compiler and STL support for these features:
  • Default template arguments for function templates
  • Delegating constructors
  • Explicit conversion operators
  • Initializer lists/uniform initialization
  • Raw string literals
  • Variadic templates
  • JavaScript:
  • To find out how to create Windows Store apps in JavaScript, including information about the Visual Studio JavaScript editor and other features, see Develop Windows Store apps using Visual Studio 2012.
  • Windows Store Apps
  • Debugging and Diagnostics:
  • Productivity improvements for managed apps include return values in the debugger, Edit and Continue support for 64-bit apps, and better exception handling in Windows Store apps.
  • Asynchronous debugging: If you are debugging managed language code on Windows 8.1 Preview, and your asynchronous code hits a break condition, you can now see the call stack window and the current tasks in the watch window.
  • When you are debugging managed language code, you can now see the return value of a method in the locals window.
  • Graphics Diagnostics are now available for Windows Store apps in Visual Studio Express 2013 Preview for Windows (as well as the Professional, Premium, and Ultimate editions). For more information, see Graphics Diagnostics. Graphics Diagnostics can capture graphics information from an app running on a remote machine or device. For more information, see Capturing Graphics Information. You can now use a remote machine or device to play back graphics information previously captured on the same machine, or on a different machine. For more information, see How to: Change the Graphics Diagnostics Playback Machine.
  • In the Visual Studio Ultimate edition, you can visualize the call stack while in debugging mode by creating code maps from the code window or call stack window. For more information, see Visualize and Debug Code Execution with Call Stacks in Visual Studio.
  • In the Visual Studio Ultimate edition, you can diagnose errors and performance issues in apps that are monitored by System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager. You can import exception and performance events as IntelliTrace log (.iTrace) files from the Microsoft Monitoring Agent in System Center and then use IntelliTrace in Visual Studio to step through code execution for those events. For more information about System Center R2 Operations Manager, see What's New for System Center 2012 R2 Operations Manager. For more information about IntelliTrace, see Debug Your App with IntelliTrace Log (.iTrace) Files.
  • MSBuild:
  • MSBuild is now included in Visual Studio instead of the .Net Framework. The current MSBuild version number is 12.0.
  • IDE:
  • The Visual Studio IDE has some important changes—improved icons, more contrast in the user interface, the ability to search the Options window directly, and other enhancements.
  • New Start Experience:
  • The new connected IDE uses your Microsoft account to connect to your VS Online profile, including your Team Foundation Service account. The first time you start Visual Studio, you supply your credentials. Based on that authentication, Visual Studio finds and applies your license and synchronizes your settings (such as fonts, language preference, and keyboard settings) across all of your computers. For more information, see Roaming Settings in Visual Studio.
  • The first time you start Visual Studio, you can select one of the three Visual Studio themes—Black, White, or Blue. (You can change the theme later.) Your theme selection is part of your roaming settings—as long as you’re logged on to Visual Studio, your theme appears on all of your computers.
  • The new Notification Center panel—at the top-right corner of the IDE next to the Quick Launch window, sends alerts as part of the Connected IDE experience. For example, if you didn’t register your installation and your license is expiring, you may receive an alert message in the Notification Center.
  • New Code Editor Features:
  • You can now use many popular code editor features in Visual Studio that were formerly available only in the Productivity Power Tools:
  • View Definition. You can browse through Visual Basic, C#, and C++ code definitions without opening a new document tab. For more information, see How to: Use View Definition.
  • Enhanced Scroll Bar. You can set the scroll bar to indicate code markers such as errors, warnings, changes, and breakpoints. For more information, see How to: Track Your Code by Customizing the Scrollbar.
  • Navigate To. (Ctrl+,): improvements include live result previewing and a streamlined inline UI experience.
  • Other new features include the ability to move a line or selection up or down by using hotkeys and auto brace completion.
  • New Code Features in the Visual Studio Ultimate Edition:
  • In the Visual Studio Ultimate edition, you can use the CodeLens feature, which shows who changed the code and what changes they made, test status and coverage, and code references. For more information, see CodeLens.
  • You can also visualize code relationships by creating code maps from the code editor. This helps you see your place in the code while you work. For more information, see Visualize and Understand Code with Code Maps in Visual Studio.
  • Team Foundation:
  • Team Projects, Planning, and Tracking:
  • You can now create Team projects that use GIT for the version control system.
  • You can quickly switch context to other team projects that you’re connected to.
  • Portfolio Backlogs:
  • By using portfolio backlogs, you can define a hierarchy of backlogs to understand the scope of work across several teams and see how that work rolls up into broader initiatives. TFS on-premises and cloud-hosted service both support the portfolio backlog in addition to the standard product backlog. For on-premises, you can define up to five portfolio backlogs.
  • Team Rooms and Collaborating as a Team:
  • You can use team rooms to increase team productivity. You can discuss work in progress, ask questions, share status, and clarify issues as they arise. Your team room provides an area for fostering and capturing communication among team members, both near and far. By using the team room instead of email threads, you automatically receive an audit trail of conversations and decisions. A team room is created by default for each project, and additional rooms can be created to support ad-hoc discussions and cross-team collaboration. This feature is available in both TFS on-premises and our cloud-hosted service.
  • Version Control:
  • You and your teammates can use the web-based Version Control Explorer to create or reply to comments about source code changes. You can add comments to changesets and shelveset or Git commits. You can also find comments by using the Version Explorer filter.
  • Automating and Debugging Builds
  • Modeling Tools
  • Testing:
  • Lightweight browser-based test management and execution help you improve quality in software projects.
  • Unit Testing:
  • Support for searching and filtering unit tests is enhanced in Test Explorer. It's easier to run Windows Store app unit tests in Team Build.
  • UI Testing:
  • Coded UI test support for Windows Store apps that use XAML.
  • Coded UI test support for Internet Explorer 11.
  • Coded UI test support for SharePoint 2013.
  • Configurable search properties for coded UI tests on the browser.
  • Coded UI test log support for cross-browser tests.
  • Microsoft Test Manager:
  • Web Test case management now has these features:
  • Test plan creation.
  • Full test-suite management.
  • Full test-case authoring, including shared steps and Parameters support.
  • Execution of test cases, including inline editing capabilities during execution.
  • ASP.NET 4.5.1:
  • For information about new features, see What’s New for ASP.NET 4.5.1 and Web Development in Visual Studio 2013.
  • Visual Studio Support for Windows Azure Mobile Services:
  • Help connect client apps to both Windows Store and Windows Azure Mobile Services.
  • Use Windows Azure Mobile Services and Windows Push Notification services to add push notifications to your app.
  • View existing Windows Azure Mobile Services and tables, and create new ones.
  • Update Windows Azure Mobile Services table scripts.
  • Blend:
  • Blend has a number of new and enhanced features.
  • HTML Design Tools:
  • CSS Animation. Create and preview CSS3 animations by using the Animation timeline.
  • JavaScript Behaviors. Add interactivity without writing code by dropping JavaScript behaviors onto any element. Choose from a list of built-in behaviors or create your own custom behaviors.
  • Embed Custom Fonts. Easily embed custom fonts and include them in your app.
  • Data Binding. Bind to design-time data to preview your data display and design your data templates.
  • Rulers and Guides. Drag visual guides from rulers to more precisely place elements and create custom layouts.
  • Border Radius. Use easy-to-manipulate handles on elements to create rounded corners and ellipses.
  • Search and Set CSS Properties. Quickly set CSS property values directly in the Search or Set box in the CSS Properties panel.
  • Find Elements using CSS Syntax. Search the Live DOM by using CSS syntax.
  • XAML Design Tools:
  • XAML editor improvements. IntelliSense for databinding and resources, smart commenting, and Go To Definition are now supported in the XAML editor in Visual Studio.
  • Rulers and guides. Drag visual guides from rulers to more precisely place elements and create custom layouts.
  • Better style editing support. In-place style and template editing supports the creation and modification of templates directly in the context of the app display.
  • Sample data support. Bind to sample data, including sample data in JSON format.
  • View-state authoring. Modify view-state properties such as Edge and minimum widths for edge-aligned views directly in the Device panel.
  • SharePoint Development:
  • You can use the new MVC (model-view-controller) pattern in Office and SharePoint 2013 to create apps. You can also publish apps to Windows Azure websites.

New in Microsoft Visual Studio Premium 2012 11.0.50727.1 (Jun 27, 2013)

  • Windows Store Apps:
  • Designing and building Windows Store apps
  • Debugging, optimizing, and publishing Windows Store apps
  • Designing and building Windows Phone apps
  • Testing, optimizing, and publishing Windows Phone apps
  • Visual Studio IDE:
  • Projects and Solutions
  • Window Management
  • Search
  • Code Editing for C++
  • Code Editing for JavaScript
  • Languages:
  • Visual Basic
  • Visual C#
  • Visual C++
  • JavaScript
  • Visual F#
  • Application Lifecycle Management and Team Foundation Server:
  • Managing the application lifecycle
  • Modeling applications
  • Developing applications and collaborating more effectively as a team
  • Automating and debugging builds
  • Microsoft Test Manager
  • ASP.NET 4.5 and Web Development:
  • ASP.NET 4.5 Core Services
  • ASP.NET 4.5 Web Forms
  • General Enhancements for Web Development
  • Data-Related Enhancements for Web Development
  • IIS Express for Web Development
  • ASP.NET Web API
  • Other Enhancements:
  • LightSwitch
  • Data Application Development
  • Graphics Tools
  • Parallel Computing
  • SharePoint Development
  • Office Development
  • .NET Framework 4.5