A few weeks ago, Visual Studio 2022 17.1 Preview 2 became available for those who want to test the integrated development environment (IDE) early. Today, this version of the software has hit general availability (GA) and is ready for everyone to try out.
Most of the features that were available in preview over a month ago have made it over to the GA version and Microsoft has also incorporated feedback gathered from end-users.
Indexed Find in Files is now enabled by default which results in a faster searching experience. If, for whatever reason, you want to disable this capability, you can navigate to Tools > Options > Environment > Preview Features and uncheck "Enable indexing for faster find experience".
You can also enable a new feature that attempts to save every "dirty" document in the IDE such as project and solution each time your IDE window loses focus. Furthermore, there are some Git enhancements in tow too, such as the ability to compare branches, checkout a commit, review pull requests, and a lot more.
Developers will also find some visualizations for available registers and their mapped memory locations when using RTOS Objects. Users can leverage from Solution Filters, which Microsoft describes as follows:
Solution Filters allow you to choose what projects to load so you can avoid loading massive solutions every time. You have the choice to load individual projects or a project with its entire dependency tree. Our users noticed the dependency tree (and solution filter) can become outdated when new projects are added, or the dependency graph changes.
Visual Studio 2022 version 17.1 added an easier way to load the entire dependency tree for all the projects in the solution filter. This will pull in any new dependencies that were added to ensure you have all the projects you need. You can check for any new dependencies by clicking Update Project Dependencies in the context menu of the solution node in the Solution Explorer.
Microsoft has noted that with Visual Studio 2022 17.1 now generally available, professional and enterprise customers should start looking into how they can start leveraging from the new features, especially those on the 17.0 Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC).
Next up is Visual Studio 2022 17.2 which is now available in preview. It currently packs some more Git enhancements, bug fixes for MAUI development, support for new C# 11 refactorings, and improvements when dealing with data locally.
You can download Visual Studio 2022 17.1 from Microsoft's dedicated website here.