Build 2013 – Visual Studio 2013 – What’s New?

Paul Nieuwelaar, 01 July 2013

Here’s some notes from the Visual Studio 2013 session at Build 2013 describing some of the cool new features we can expect. Note that this is only from the VS2013 preview, so there may be some more features to come in the full version.

•  Ability to log in and sync settings and themes; similar to Office 2013, you will be able to log in with your Microsoft Account and choose settings to sync between all your devices running Visual Studio 2013.

•  All options menus and toolbars now have a built in search bar for quickly finding settings. The Quick launch bar in the top right corner introduced in VS2012 can also be used to quickly find settings and options.

•  The options menus can now be resized, so you’re not restricted to the default size.

•  Updates to visual studio will now appear as individual updates that you can choose to install or dismiss, rather than forcing you to install all or nothing. If you dismiss an update it will not remind you again. Informational updates will appear as white, while warning updates will be yellow, and critical updates will be red.

•  200+ bugs with high DPI monitors have been fixed with VS2013, including how options are displayed.

•  New enhanced scrollbar allows you to see a small preview of your code file, allowing you to easily locate break points and changes.

•  The ability to auto-complete braces, comments, and quotes has now also been included out of the box, meaning you can open a curly brace and start writing without worrying about the ending brace.

•  Instead of pressing F12 to navigate to a method, and losing your place in your previous file, you can now use Preview Peek, by pressing Alt + F12 instead of just F12, which allows you to view the method or class inline of the same document. From within that document you can then navigate into further documents, all within the same Preview Peek instance, using breadcrumbs to navigate backwards again. You can also simply press Esc to close the Preview Peek taking you back to the original document. At this time we cannot edit code within the Preview Peek pane, however this may be included in the full release.

•  Solutions will now be loaded async, meaning you can open solutions with 100+ projects, and they will open in the background allowing you to work on files while everything else loads. The files you last had open will load first allowing you to quickly resume where you left off.

•  CodeLens above each method allows you to show what references this method, and also who wrote the method, and who tested it. You can also see the unit tests the use the method, and easily run them.

•  Building projects or solutions will now also be performed async, so you can start a build and continue working while it processes in the background. You also now have the ability to cancel a build if you choose.

If you want to check out the Visual Studio 2013 preview for yourself, you can download it from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/2013-downloads#d-2013-editions