Microsoft rolls out Visual Studio 2022 Preview 1
Earlier this year, Microsoft officials said they would release a first preview of the next version of Visual Studio, named Visual Studio 2022, some time this summer. Today, June 17, is the day. Visual Studio 2022 Preview 1 is available for download.
Visual Studio 2022 is the first release of a 64-bit version of Visual Studio, as officials said previously. Officials said their "key goal with this preview is to test and tune the scalability of the new 64-bit platform." Because converting VS to 64-bit affects every part of the suite, Microsoft officials said the first preview's scope is much bigger than the team's usual previews.
By making Visual Studio 64-bit, officials said that they expect the release to make better use of all system resources, especially when working with more complex solutions over longer periods of time. According to Microsoft's blog post, during early VS 2022 testing, customers were able to run the VS IDE for days, even with solutions containing 700 or more projects.
There are still a "small number" of features in VS 2019 that are not in today's VS 2022 Preview 1, as noted in the release notes, officials said.
Visual Studio 2022 previews can be installed side-by-side with earlier versions of Visual Studio's existing three editions (Community, Pro, and Enterprise). Previews of VS 2022 are free to use.
Officials said testers should expect new features and performance improvements to start showing up in Preview 2. The Visual Studio 2022 roadmap is here. The download link is here.