Software Update: Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 15.6.1

Microsoft has released version 15.6.1 of Visual Studio 2017. This popular programming development environment has useful options to make programming easier in Visual C++, Visual Basic, C#, F#, Python, and R, among others. You can read the entire laundry list of changes from the 2017 edition in the accompanying release notes. The changes in this release are as follows:

Visual Studio 2017 version 15.6.1 – Issues Fixed in this Release

These are the customer-reported issues addressed in this release:

• AnkhSVN 2.7.12815 failed to load “Pending Changes” view after updating to VS 2017 15.6.0.

Visual Studio 2017 version 15.6

Summary: What’s New in this Release

• We improved solution load performance by optimizing design time build.
• We’ve added installation progress details on Visual Studio Installer.
• You can pause your installation and resume at a later time.
• We streamlined the update process so the notification takes you directly to the Installer.
• Non-administrators can create a VS layout.
• We added a new shortcut for Edit.Duplicate in the keyboard mapping.
• We made significant improvements to the F# language and tools, particularly for .NET Core SDK projects.
• Additional optimizations in the C++ compiler allow your code to run faster.
• C++ Mapfile generation overhead is reduced in full linking scenarios.
• Debug options are available for Embedded ARM GCC support.
• We added strong name signing on CoreCLR for the C# compiler.
• Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin has lots of new productivity updates for iOS and Android developers.
• Python no longer requires a completion DB, and Anaconda users have support for conda.
• The Performance Profiler’s CPU Usage Tool can display logical call stacks for asynchronous code.
• The CPU Usage tool displays source line highlighting and async/await code with logical ‘Call Stack Stitching’.
• The debugger supports thread names set via SetThreadDescription APIs in dump debugging.
• Snapshot Debugging can be started from the Debug Target dropdown for ASP.NET applications.
• We’ve launched the initial implementation of Navigate to decompiled sources for .NET code navigation.
• You can now click on the Continuous Delivery tile in Team Explorer to configure automated build and deployments for your application.
• New enhancements for Configure Continuous Delivery include support for TFVC, Git authentication over SSH, and containerized projects.
• Team Explorer supports Git tags and checking out pull request branches.
• Service Fabric Tooling for the 6.1 Service Fabric release is now available.
• The Windows 10 Insider Preview SDK can be installed as an optional component.
• File versions for a number of Visual Studio executables now reflect the minor release.
• Test Explorer has a hierarchy view and real time test discovery is now on by default.
• We have added support for testing Win10 IoT Core applications.
• Visual Studio Build Tools supports TypeScript and Node.js.
• ClickOnce Tools support signing application and deployment manifests with CNG certificate.
• You can access Azure resources such as Key Vault using your Visual Studio accounts.

Top Issues Fixed in this Release

• Resizing of windows is not reliable.
• .NET Core Projects containing special characters fail to restore NuGet packages or build.
• Test Explorer Default Architecture not remembered.
• Solution Explorer does not remain pinned after closing Visual Studio.
• Regular UI freezes during debug session.
• File names revert to lower case when re-opening a project.
• Mouse cursor sticks on the Pointer (Hand) icon.
• VSIXAutoUpdate crashes on scheduled task.
• Start-up generates “We’ve noticed that a tool window ‘Error List’ is slowing Visual Studio.” alert.
• Quick Launch no longer displays results after toggling to full screen.
• XAML Activity designer throws OutOfMemoryException due to failed assembly reference resolution.
• Cannot Stop/Cancel Debugged Unit Tests when using Selenium WebDriver.
• When using the /quiet switch, vsixinstaller.exe does not exit at the end of installation.