It accepts plug-ins that expand the functionality at almost every level—including adding support for source control systems (like Subversion and Git) and adding new toolsets like editors and visual designers for domain-specific languages or toolsets for other aspects of the software development lifecycle (like the Azure DevOps client: Team Explorer).

Built-in languages include C,[6] C++, C++/CLI, Visual Basic .NET, C#, F#,[7] JavaScript, TypeScript, XML, XSLT, HTML, and CSS.

The slogan for Visual Studio Community edition is "Free, fully-featured IDE for students, open-source and individual developers".

[9] Visual Studio does not support any programming language, solution or tool intrinsically; instead, it allows the plugging of functionality coded as a VSPackage.

[13] Functionalities that can be added this way include syntax coloring, statement completion, brace matching, parameter information tooltips, member lists, and error markers for background compilation.

Visual Studio 2005, 2008, and 2010 use MSSCCI Version 1.3, which adds support for rename and delete propagation, as well as asynchronous opening.

[21][22] Autocomplete suggestions appear in a modeless list box over the code editor window, in proximity of the editing cursor.

These tools are surfaced as floating windows which can be set to automatically hide when unused or docked to the side of the screen.

Macros represent repeatable tasks and actions that developers can record programmatically for saving, replaying, and distributing.

The following uses also allow unlimited usage: contributing to Open Source projects, academic research, in a classroom learning environment and for developing and testing device drivers for the Windows operating system.

It is possible to run CIL programs in Linux or Mac OS X using non-Microsoft .NET implementations like Mono and DotGNU.

"Enterprise Templates" were also introduced, to help larger development teams standardize coding styles and enforce policies around component usage and property settings.

Microsoft removed the ".NET" moniker from Visual Studio 2005 (as well as every other product with .NET in its name), but it still primarily targets the .NET Framework, which was upgraded to version 2.0.

[131] An additional update for Service Pack 1 that offers Windows Vista compatibility was made available on June 3, 2007.

The IntelliSense feature in Visual Studio was upgraded for generics and new project types were added to support ASP.NET web services.

[133] Visual Studio 2005 also includes a local web server, separate from IIS, that can host ASP.NET applications during development and testing.

[136] It is significantly different from the first version, including features such as dynamic programming and support for WPF, WCF, WF, LINQ, and .NET 3.5 Framework.

The Visual Studio 2010 IDE was redesigned which, according to Microsoft, clears the UI organization and "reduces clutter and complexity.

Dynamic help containing links to help items based on what the developer was doing at the time was removed in the final release,[163] but can be added back using a download from Microsoft.

The Lab Management component of Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 uses virtualization to create a similar execution environment for testers and developers.

[173] The final build of Visual Studio 2012 was announced on August 1, 2012, and the official launch event was held on September 12, 2012.

New features include support for WinRT and C++/CX (Component Extensions) and C++ AMP (GPGPU programming) Semantic Colorization.

[183][184] In the Visual Studio 2012 release candidate (RC), a major change to the interface is the use of all-caps menu bar, as part of the campaign to keep Visual Studio consistent with the direction of other Microsoft user interfaces, and to provide added structure to the top menu bar area.

[185] The redesign was criticized for being hard to read, and going against the trends started by developers to use CamelCase to make words stand out better.

[209] On November 14, 2016, for a brief period of time, Microsoft released a blog post revealing Visual Studio 2017 product name version alongside upcoming features.

[212] It also has a XAML Editor, improved IntelliSense, live unit testing, debugging enhancement and better IDE experience and productivity.

On November 8, 2022, Visual Studio 17.4 was released and provided an ARM64 native version of the compiler itself, not just the ability to target ARM from x86/x64 (real or emulated on ARM64).

[46] Microsoft offers Stakeholder, Basic, and Visual Studio subscriber access levels for Azure DevOps Services.

LightSwitch also supports other data sources including Microsoft SharePoint, OData and WCF RIA Services.

[255] It analyzes the code and prepares a report that includes CPU sampling, instrumentation, .NET memory allocation and resource contention.