Microsoft releases first preview of Visual Studio v17.14

Microsoft has just unveiled the first preview of Visual Studio 2022 v17.14, bringing fresh enhancements and improvements for developers. As the latest iteration in the v17 series, this release continues to refine the development experience, ensuring greater efficiency and performance.

Key Highlights:

• Update Priority: Experience a more reliable and secure development environment with AI-driven improvements.

• View Outgoing/Incoming Commits: A new toolbar filter makes it easier to spot unsynced commits at a glance.

• Git Repository Window Restoration: Visual Studio now automatically restores your Git repository window after a restart, saving you time.

• Set Default Branch Name: Customize your workflow by setting the default branch name for new Git repositories directly within Visual Studio.

• Quick Info for CMake Modules: Get IntelliSense-powered completions and quick info for CMake modules, making it easier to explore and understand available options right from the editor.

Power Automate releases new security features for Desktop flows

Microsoft has introduced new security features for Power Automate desktop flows, enhancing identity protection, secret management, and infrastructure security. These updates strengthen compliance and safeguard automation processes, ensuring a more secure and resilient desktop automation experience.

Here are the new security features:

• Secure desktop flow credentials with Azure Key Vault and CyberArk secrets: Encrypt and manage passwords securely to reduce unauthorized access risks.

• Certificate-Based Authentication (CBA) with MFA: Strengthen security with this passwordless solution, ensuring compliance for both attended and unattended scenarios.

• Credentials for Desktop flow actions: Protect sensitive information by keeping credentials out of scripts and logs, ensuring only authorized access.

• VNet support for Hosted machine groups: Easily scale RPA workloads on Microsoft-managed virtual machines hosted on Azure infrastructure.

• Network Level Authentication (NLA) for Microsoft Entra joined & hybrid devices: Enforce user authentication before remote desktop connections.

Visual Studio introduces new features for enhanced Razor productivity

Microsoft continues to refine the developer experience with the latest update to Visual Studio. Version 17.12 brings improvements aimed at boosting Razor productivity, making it easier and more efficient for developers to build and maintain applications. These enhancements further streamline workflows and reinforce Visual Studio’s commitment to delivering a seamless coding experience.

Here’s what you need to know about the new features:

• Extract to Component, available in Visual Studio 17.12, is a new refactoring tool that automates the process of creating a Razor/Blazor component.

• You can quickly generate a new file and extract code by selecting the refactoring (Ctrl + .) after highlighting the code (or tag) you want to extract.

• The new Roslyn C# tokenizer/lexer enables support for raw string literals and verbatim interpolated strings in Razor files.

• The lexer also adds support for binary literals and improves the handling of C# preprocessor directives, ensuring they follow C# rules.

Microsoft releases generative AI lessons for beginners for .NET developers

Microsoft has just unveiled a new resource designed to make generative AI more accessible to developers. Whether you're new to AI or looking to expand your skills, this latest offering provides a solid foundation to get started.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Core Concepts & Setup: Understand generative AI fundamentals and configure your environment to access AI models in the cloud or locally via Ollama.

• Beyond Text Processing: Build practical solutions with AI-powered chatbots, integrating video and real-time audio.

• AI Agents in Action: Explore autonomous intelligent agents that can act on the user's behalf.

• Responsible AI: Ensure ethical and secure AI implementation in your applications.

• Bite-Sized Learning: Short, engaging 5–10 minute videos explain each concept step by step.

SQL Server environment variables are now available for Power Apps

Microsoft Power Apps continues to enhance flexibility and security for developers working with SQL Server. With the latest updates, managing connections and configurations has become even more seamless, enabling teams to build more scalable and maintainable applications. Learn how these improvements can streamline your Power Apps development.

Here’s what you can do:

• Easier environment transitions: Move solutions seamlessly between environments with pre-configured variables.

• Manual or automatic setup: Create variables manually or enable auto-creation when adding a data source.

• Define your SQL Server: Set up an environment variable for your SQL Server.

• Link your database: Create a database variable that attaches to the server variable.

• Use it in your app: Select the environment variable from the Advanced tab when creating a data source.

Copilot Studio January 2025 Updates

Microsoft kicks off 2025 with exciting updates to Copilot Studio, reinforcing its commitment to AI-powered business solutions. The latest enhancements focus on making AI more adaptable and efficient for organizations of all sizes. As businesses continue to embrace AI-driven workflows, these updates aim to streamline operations and improve user experiences.

Here are some of the updates:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat – Build a free, secure AI chat experience powered by GPT-4, accessible to all employees in a unified UI.

• Shared Consumption Meter for Copilot Studio – The new PAYGO meter lets you pay only for the messages you use, offering a flexible, cost-effective alternative to prepaid packs.

• Smarter SharePoint Search – Leverage semantic indexing to deliver more relevant search results from your SharePoint data.

• Knowledge Tuning (Public Preview) – Fine-tune your knowledge with data-driven insights, optimizing your AI’s responses.

• Image Analysis in Chat – Upload images to let agents analyze both text and visuals for a more intuitive conversation experience.

See the full list of new features here.

Power Apps January 2025 latest enhancements

Microsoft has kicked off 2025 with a new Power Apps update, bringing fresh enhancements to streamline app development and boost user experience. This latest release continues to build on innovation, empowering both developers and businesses to create more efficient, customized solutions.

Here are some of the latest updates:

• Plan Designer (Public Preview) – Turn business requirements into complete low-code solutions in minutes.

• Enhanced Data Workspace – Visualize and manage existing tables with the improved ERD table designer.

• Simplified Maintenance – Power Fx updates now support enhanced component properties, user-defined functions, and user-defined types.

• Enterprise-Grade Governance – SQL Server environment variables make it easier to move solutions across environments.

• Advanced Code Components – React- and Fluent-based virtual code components are now generally available, enabling seamless component creation without extra packaging.

View the full list here.

Customizing AI-generated Git commit messages in Visual Studio 2022 is now available

Microsoft Visual Studio just introduced a game-changing update—developers can now customize AI-generated Git commit messages to better fit their coding style and project needs. This new capability enhances productivity by allowing developers to fine-tune AI suggestions, ensuring clearer and more meaningful commit histories.

Here’s what you can do with the feature:

• Enhanced feedback and suggestions ensure clear, effective communication in collaborative development.

• Customize commit messages effortlessly, adjusting line count, length, and style.

• Seamlessly integrate this capability into your workflow for more structured and meaningful commits.

• Enable the feature via Tools > Options > Copilot and set your preferred parameters.

Unlock the power of data with AI tools in Dynamics 365 solutions to accelerate sales

The future of sales is here, and it's powered by AI and unified data. Microsoft is redefining sales strategies with intelligent insights, seamless automation, and enhanced collaboration—helping businesses drive revenue with greater efficiency. Discover how Dynamics 365 is leading the way in AI-driven sales transformation.

See how Copilot and AI agents in Microsoft solutions can transform insights into action:

• Unified Customer Profiles: Dynamics 365 Customer Insights consolidates data from sales, marketing, and service to create a comprehensive 360-degree customer view.

• AI-powered recommendations: The Sales Qualification Agent in Dynamics 365 Sales provides real-time lead insights, empowering sales teams to close deals faster.

• Predictive analytics: Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Insights use predictive analytics to anticipate customer needs, enabling timely and personalized engagement.

• Time-saving automation: Automate repetitive tasks with AI-driven workflows, allowing sales teams to focus on building meaningful customer relationships.

Visual Studio 2022 now preserves font when changing themes

Microsoft has introduced a new update to Visual Studio, ensuring that custom font settings are preserved when switching themes. This improvement eliminates the need to reconfigure fonts after a theme change, providing a more seamless and personalized development experience.

Here is why you should use this feature:

No manual adjustments needed – Your selected font face and size remain unchanged, while font colors still adapt to the theme.

Enabled by default – This feature is automatically on for all users, ensuring a consistent coding experience.

Easily revert if needed – Prefer your fonts to follow the theme? Go to Tools > Manage Preview Features, find Separate font settings from color theme selection, and uncheck it.

Boost productivity – The right font settings can improve focus and readability, so you can code more efficiently.