Microsoft to release Visual Studio 2017 on March 7

Microsoft is planning to release the completed version of Visual Studio 2017 on March 7, officials said today.

Microsoft plans to commemorate the launch with a virtual keynote presentation, which will also be Microsoft's recognition of the 20th anniversary of the release of Visual Studio (Visual Studio 97 in 1997).

Microsoft has been privately testing what it's been calling "Visual Studio Next" and/or "Visual Studio '15" preview, since early 2016. Microsoft released the first public preview of the its integrated suite of development tools at the end of March 2016.

The coming release of Visual Studio includes enhancements to code navigation, IntelliSense, refactoring and debugging. It has built-in Azure development tools for building Azure cloud applications. And Xamarin integration in the product means developers can build .NET-based Android, iOS and Windows apps.

Microsoft redesigned the Visual Studio 2017 setup experience in an attempt to speed and simplify set-up by allowing developers to install just the features they need. Microsoft officials also have said the coming release includes a lot of fixes to Visual C++. And with Visual Studio 2017, Microsoft is moving toward making .NET Core much more similar to the rest of .NET. (Here's a quick refresher on what .NET Core is.)

The documentation for Visual Studio 2017 can be found on Microsoft's new docs.com documentation site. For those interested in the launch event, which will be livestreamed over two days on March 7 and 8, more information is here.