2019Logo Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3 Release Notes

  • Article

Developer Community | System Requirements | Compatibility | Distributable Code | Release History | License Terms | Blogs | Whats New in Visual Studio Docs

Note

This is not the latest version of Visual Studio. To download the latest release, please visit the Visual Studio site.

What's New in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3

Support Timeframe

This version is now out of support. For more information about Visual Studio support, please review the Support Policy for Visual Studio 2019.

Refer to the latest version of the release notes or visit the Visual Studio site to download the latest supported version of Visual Studio 2019.

Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3 Releases

Archived Release Notes

Visual Studio 2019 Blog

The Visual Studio 2019 Blog is the official source of product insight from the Visual Studio Engineering Team. You can find in-depth information about the Visual Studio 2019 releases in the following posts:

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.10 New release icon

released November 20, 2019

Top Issues Fixed in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.10

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.9

released November 12, 2019

Top Issues Fixed in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.9

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.8

released November 5, 2019

Top Issues Fixed in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.8

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.7

released October 29, 2019

Top Issues Fixed in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.7

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.6

released October 22, 2019

Top Issues Fixed in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.6

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.5

released October 15, 2019

Top Issues Fixed in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.5

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.4

released October 10, 2019

Top Issues Fixed in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.4

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.3

released October 8, 2019

Top Issues Fixed in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.3

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.2

released October 1, 2019

Top Issues Fixed in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.2

  • Corrected an issue with Xcode 11 support.

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.1

released September 25, 2019

Top Issues Fixed in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.1

Release Notes Icon Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.0

released September 23, 2019

Summary of What's New in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3

Top Issues Fixed in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.0

Details of What's new in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3.0

.NET Framework 4.8

The .NET Framework 4.8 development tools have been added to support targeting .NET Framework 4.8. The .NET Framework 4.8 offers several new features and improvements as well as numerous reliability, stability, security, and performance fixes. Find more details about the .NET Framework 4.8 in the .NET Framework 4.8 blog announcement

.NET productivity

  • Developers can now rename a file when renaming an interface, enum, or class. Place the cursor in the class name and type (Ctrl + R,R) to open the Rename dialogue and check the ‘Rename file’ box.
Rename containing file when renaming a class
Rename containing file when renaming a class
  • You can now Edit and Continue support for multi-targeted projects which includes modules loaded multiple times in the same process on different domains or load contexts. In addition, developers can edit source files even when the containing project is not loaded or the application is running.
  • You can now wrap chains of fluent calls with a refactoring. Place your cursor on a call chain and press (Ctrl+.) to trigger the Quick Actions and Refactorings menu. Select either Wrap call chain or Wrap and align call chain.
Wrap call chain
Wrap Call Chain
  • Users can now introduce a local variable immediately after writing its initializer. First, write an expression. Then place the cursor in the expression name and press (Ctrl+.) to trigger the Quick Actions and Refactorings menu. Select the option to introduce a local variable.
Introduce a local variable
Introduce Local Variable After Writing Initializer
  • There is now .NET Core tooling support for analyzers. Users can add the most recommended analyzer package by right clicking on the project name within the solution explorer and select properties. Select Code Analysis to install the analyzer package and to configure when to run code analysis.
.NET Core Tooling Analyzer Support
.NET Core Tooling Analyzer Support
  • Previously, we added IntelliSense completion for unimported types. This feature came with the option to turn it off for users who did not want unimported types always populating their IntelliSense. Now, for users who turn off the completion for unimported types, it's much easier to get it back in the completion list with the new imported type filter added to the IntelliSense toggles.
IntelliSense completion list expander
IntelliSense completion list expander
IntelliSense completion list expander triggered
IntelliSense Completion List Expander Triggered
  • There is now Quick Info style support for XML comments. Place the cursor over the method name. Quick Info will then display the supported styles from the XML comments above the code.
Quick info style support for XML comments
Quick Info style support for XML comments

WPF/UWP Tooling

Customers building WPF/UWP applications will see the following improvements in Visual Studio XAML tooling:

Designer:

  • WPF Designer now fully available (GA) for WPF .NET Core Projects: The XAML Designer for WPF .NET Core applications is now generally available (GA) to all customers without the need for preview feature flag. The XAML Designer for WPF .NET Core applications is slightly different in some behaviors and functionality then WPF .NET Framework Designer, please note this is by design. Given the difference we’d like to encourage customers to report any problems or limitations that you might be running into using Visual Studio feedback feature.
WPF .NET Core XAML Designer
WPF .NET Core XAML Designer

XAML Debugging Tools:

  • XAML Hot Reload support added for WPF resource dictionaries changes: XAML Hot Reload now supports updating WPF Resource Dictionaries for real-time updates in the application. Previously this feature was only available to Universal Windows Platform (UWP), but is now supported for WPF .NET Framework, WPF .NET Core and UWP apps. Supported actions include adding a new Resources section definition and adding, deleting and updating resources new/existing sections.
  • In-app toolbar now movable: The in-app toolbar has been enhanced so that it is movable within the running WPF/UWP application, enabling developers to drag it left or right within the app to unblock app UI. Note that position to which the toolbar is moved is not stored between sessions and will go back to the default position when your app is restarted.
In-app toolbar movable
In-app toolbar movable

UWP Package Signing.

  • Brought back the ability to create and import signing certificate files (.pfx) through the Manifest Designer.
UWP signing
  • Introduced the ability to create and import signing certificates through the Packaging Wizard to streamline the signing process.
UWP signing packaging wizard

.NET tools

  • Support for adding new Open API & GRPC service references to .NET Core 3.0 projects.
  • Publish .NET Core 3.0 worker projects Azure Container Registry, DockerHub, etc.
  • .NET Core 3.0 templates for Worker, gRPC, Razor Class library & Blazor are surfaced in the New Project Dialog.
  • Any updates made to the .NET Core 3.0 templates via the .NET CLI are also surfaced in Visual Studio.

C++

  • C++ developers can now toggle line comments using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + K, Ctrl + /.
  • IntelliSense member lists are now filtered based on type qualifiers, e.g. const std::vector will now filter out methods such as push_back.
  • Added the following C++20 Standard Library preview features (with /std:c++latest):
    • P0487R1: Fixing operator>>(basic_istream&, CharT*)
    • P0616R0: Using move() In <numeric>
    • P0758R1: is_nothrow_convertible
    • P0734R0: C++ extensions for Concepts
    • P0898R3: Standard Library Concepts
    • P0919R3: Heterogeneous Lookup For Unordered Containers
  • New C++ Core Guideline checks, including the new "Enum Rules" rule set, and additional const, enum, and type rules.
  • A new default semantic colorization scheme allows users to better understand their code at a glance, the call-stack window can be configured to hide template arguments, and C++ IntelliCode is on-by-default.
  • Configure debug targets and custom tasks with environment variables using CMakeSettings.json or CppProperties.json or the new "env" tag on individual targets and tasks in launch.vs.json and tasks.vs.json.
  • Users can now use a quick action on missing vcpkg packages to automatically open a console and install to the default vcpkg installation.
  • The remote header copy done by Linux projects (CMake and MSBuild) has been optimized and now runs in parallel.
  • Visual Studio's native support for WSL now supports parallel builds for MSBuild-based Linux projects.
  • Users can now specify a list of local build outputs to deploy to a remote system with Linux Makefile projects.
  • Setting descriptions in the CMake Settings Editor now contain more context and links to helpful documentation.

Container Tools

  • Developers building Azure Functions (v2) can now add Docker container support (Linux only) to their C# projects. This can be done by right clicking the project name in Solution Explorer and selecting "Add" --> "Docker Support". In addition to adding a Dockerfile to your project the debug target will be set to "Docker". What this means is debugging of Functions code will happen inside of the running container. Users will be able to hit breakpoints, inspect variables, and use all the powerful debugging features Visual Studio provides.
Debug Azure Functions running in Linux containers.
Debug Azure Functions running in Linux containers

Database Profiling for .Net Core projects

This release includes a new tool in the suite of performance and diagnostics tools available via the Performance Profiler (ALT-F2). The new database tool will provide details about queries from .Net Core projects which utilize ADO.Net or Entity Framework. The tool provides a "go to source" option for linking to source code and provides timing details for each query executed during a profiling session. This tool can work simultaneously with other tools in the Performance Profiler. When used in conjunction with the CPU Usage tool, one gains detailed information about the performance characteristics of .Net Core code which uses a database.

Debugger

  • The Parallel Stacks Window has improved the visualization of tasks and their dependencies in a process to make it easier to diagnose problems in asynchronous code.
Tasks visualization in parallel stacks window
Improved task visualization in the Parallel Stacks Window

F# and F# tools

This release includes support for F# 4.7, the newest version of the F# language!

Much of F# 4.7 was dedicated to underlying infrastructural changes that allow us to deliver preview of F# language functionality more effectively. That said, there are still some nice new features delivered as well.

F# language and core library

We added support for F# 4.7, a minor language release that comes with compiler infrastructure to enable preview features so that we can get feedback on feature designs earlier in the development process.

The full F# 4.7 feature set is:

In addition to the F# 4.7 feature set, this release includes support for the following preview F# language features:

  • Support for nameof expressions
  • Support for opening of static classes

You can enable this by seeting <LangVersion>preview</LangVersion> in your project file.

This release also contains the following bug fixes and improvements to the F# compiler:

  • A longstanding issue where the F# compiler could stack overflow with massive records, structs, or other types has been resolved (#7070)
  • An issue where specifying invalid inline IL could crash Visual Studio has been resolved (#7164
  • Resolution of an issue where copying of a struct would not occur if it was defined in C# and mutated in a member call (#7406)
  • A crypto hash of the portable PDB content created by the compiler is not included in the PE debug directory, with a configurable hash set to SHA-256 by default (#4259, #1223)
  • A bug where LeafExpressionConverter ignored ValueType and assumed System.Tuple has been fixed (#6515) by Kevin Malenfant
  • A bug where List.transpose discaded data instead of throwing an exception has been resolved (#6908) by Patrick McDonald
  • A bug where List.map3 gave a misleading error when used on lists of different lengths has been resolved (#6897) by reacheight

F# tools

This release also includes a few improvements to the F# tools for Visual Studio:

  • Records are formatted more to look more like canonical declarations and values in tooltips and F# interactive (#7163)
  • Properties in tooltips now specify whether or not that are get-only, set-only, or get and set (#7007)
  • An issue where Go to Definition and other features could not always work across projects when files use forward slashes (#4446, #5521, #4016) has been fixed, with help from chadunit
  • Issues with anonymous records and debugging have been resolved (#6728, #6512)
  • A bug where empty hash directives in source could make source text coloring seem random has been resolved (#6400, #7000)

IDE

  • A search box in the start window allows you quick location of recently used projects, solutions, and folders. In addition, these MRU code containers integrate with Visual Studio global search so developers can find them through the Visual Studio search box.
Start window MRU search
Search in recent projects list on start window
  • Improvements to the Installer dialog interface within the Visual Studio IDE makes it easier to identify specific workloads being added to Visual Studio.
  • VS Search will support the ability to search for types and members with C# and VB, as well as file search for all languages. Results will show up as users type their search query, as well as in a dedicated ‘Code’ group accessible via keyboard shortcut or mouse click.
  • Newly installed project templates are indicated with a "New" label to allow quick identification, and filters show selected values in the New Project Dialog. In addition, developers can organize recently used templates by pinning, unpinning, and removing them from the list.
New Project Dialog
See newly installed projects and selected filters, and pin templates in the New Project Dialog
  • Search for templates in the New Project Dialog through a more robust fuzzy search which adapts with typos and plurals to highlighting matching keyword and rank results based on search and filter relevance.
New Project Dialog template search
Improved search accuracy and highlighting in project templates search

Installer

  • Visual Studio now updates both the Visual Studio IDE and the Installer with a single click for increased productivity.
  • The Visual Studio installer components for .NET Core 2.1 and 2.2 used to only carry the runtime. From this preview onwards the components will also carry the templates as well as the runtime.
  • A search box in the Visual Studio Installer's Individual components tab allows for quick location of all available components for installation.
Installer components search
Search individual components in the Visual Studio Installer

IntelliCode

  • The C++ base model has been turned on by default.
    • You can change this setting by going to Tools > Options > IntelliCode.
  • We've included Repeated Edits for C#, which analyzes local edits for repeatable changes and determines other places you may need this change within the same file.
    • Suggested repeated edits will appear in the Error List and as warnings within the code file.

JavaScript/TypeScript

  • JavaScript and TypeScript classification (commonly called “syntax coloring”) will be applied to large files more quickly. The list of JavaScript and TypeScript code fixes and refactorings (i.e. the lightbulb) will also be displayed more quickly.
  • There is now editor support for TypeScript 3.6.
  • When a tsconfig.json file is edited or changed, Visual Studio will now refresh the project more responsively.

Python Tests

  • Python Developers can now run tests using the popular Python framework pytest in both Python projects and Open Folder workspace scenarios.
  • To enable pytest and unittest for Python projects, right-click on the project solution name and select Properties. From there, select the Test tab to select testing options. Note that for unittest, you must specify the directory for the tests (root directory is the default) as well as the pattern for the test filenames. Test Discovery is intitiated as soon as changes are saved in the Test tab.
pythontest_project
Configuring a Python project to discover pytests or tests written with unittest. Notice that by selecting 'Show output from: Tests' in the Output Window, users are able to see logging information associated with test runs, for both failed and passed tests.
  • The unittest testing experience has been reworked such that a user now needs to manually configure tests for both Python projects and Open Folder workspaces as these tests are no longer automatically discovered:
  • To enable tests for Python folders, click on the Show All Files icon to Show All Files in the Solution Explorer. From there, click on the PythonSettings.json file located within your 'Local Settings' folder (if there isn't a file there, create one). Within this file, you can specify the 'TestFramework' you wish to use as well as the test filename patterns and the directory that contains your tests (both options apply to unittest):
pythontest_folder
  • Test debugging is updated to use PTVSD 4, but if users wish to continue using the 'Legacy Debugger' or run into any issues with using the new debugger, they can enable it by going to Tools > Options > Python > Debugging > Use Legacy Debugger and check the box to enable it.
  • We have also made it simple for users with pre-existing projects and in open folder workspaces that contain test files to quickly continue working with their code in Visual Studio 2019. When users open a project that contains testing configuration files (e.g. a .ini file for pytest), but they have not installed or enabled pytest, they will be prompted to install the necessary packages and configure them for the Python environment they are working:
pytest infobar
Whenever a Python project or folder is opened that contains test files that aren't configured, users are prompted to do so as well as install the necessary test package, which in this example, is pytest.
  • Similarly for unittest test files within a project or open folder workspace, users will be prompted to install and/or enable the testing framework. For both scenarios, developers have the option to ignore the message and to manually configure the framework.

Visual Studio Performance Profiler

  • The CPU Usage tool in the Performance Profiler automatically displays the "hot path" indicator with a red flame icon when displaying the Call Tree. This saves a click on common CPU Usage performance investigations. The CPU Usage tools is accessible by using Alt-F2 or from the Debug menu.
  • The Performance Profiler now participates in forward/backward navigation in the Visual Studio IDE. As developers navigate to various views of tools in the Performance Profiler, navigation points are saved along with other navigation items. They can be employed by clicking the navigation buttons or using navigation commands in Visual Studio.
Forward/Backward Navigation Image
Forward/Backward Navigation in the Profiler

Web Tools

  • Easily configure applications' dependencies in publish profiles using the new Add Dependency wizard. It currently supports adding dependencies to Azure SignalR Service, Azure SQL Server, Azure Storage allowing users to either provision new instances or select existing ones without leaving the IDE.
  • The ASP.NET runtime team has enabled support for serving static content from within Razor class libraries due to popular demand. In this preview of Visual Studio, the team has added tooling support for this scenario.

Xamarin

This release includes the following Xamarin SDK updates:

  • Xamarin.iOS 13
    • Adds support for Xcode 11 to build and debug apps for iOS 13, tvOS 13, and watchOS 6. See our Introduction to iOS 13 for more details on the new features available.
  • Xamarin.Android 10
    • Android apps can now target Android 10 by setting Compile using Android version: (Target Framework) to Android 10.0 (Q) under the Application tab of the project property page. Android 10 introduces features such as dark theme, gestural navigation, and optimizations for foldable devices. See our Android 10 with Xamarin page for more information on these new features.
android q
Set the Compile using Android version: (Target Framework) to Android 10.0 (Q).

This release also includes several new tooling features and enhancements:

  • A public preview of XAML Hot Reload for Xamarin.Forms is available in this release. XAML Hot Reload lets you rapidly iterate on your UI while debugging your app on an emulator, simulator, or physical device. Simply edit your XAML then save the file to see the changes immediately reflected on the running app. To enable XAML Hot Reload, go to Tools > Options > Xamarin > Hot Reload.
xaml hot reload
XAML Hot Reload for Xamarin.Forms.
  • The XAML Previewer for Xamarin.Forms now renders Material design for both iOS and Android when using Xamarin.Forms Visual.
  • The Xamarin Designer for iOS has a new way to work with constraints. When you select a constrainable view, an ellipsis will now appear in the toolbar next to the Constraints Pinning Mode selector. Click the ellipsis to display a popover for editing constraints on the selected view.
new ios constraints editor
New iOS constraints editor popover.
  • You can now archive and publish iOS apps from Visual Studio on Windows. Create an archive while paired to a Mac machine by setting the configuration to Release|iPhone, right-clicking your iOS project in the Solution Explorer, and selecting the Archive... menu option. From the archive manager you can save an .ipa to disk for ad-hoc distribution or upload to App Store Connect to publish your app to the App Store.
  • When you right-click a .plist file in the Solution Explorer, there are new options to quickly open it using the generic plist designer or the XML editor.
new plist options
New options to open .plist files.

Known Issues

See all issues and available workarounds in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.3 by following the below link.

Visual Studio 2019 Known Issues

Feedback and suggestions

We would love to hear from you! For issues, let us know through the Report a Problem option in the upper right-hand corner of either the installer or the Visual Studio IDE itself. The Feedback Icon icon is located in the upper right-hand corner. You can make a product suggestion or track your issues in the Visual Studio Developer Community, where you can ask questions, find answers, and propose new features. You can also get free installation help through our Live Chat support.

Blogs

Take advantage of the insights and recommendations available in the Developer Tools Blogs site to keep you up-to-date on all new releases and include deep dive posts on a broad range of features.

Visual Studio 2019 Release Notes History

For more information relating to past versions of Visual Studio 2019, see the Visual Studio 2019 Release Notes History page.

Top of Page