Visual Studio 2012 – Update 2 RTM!

Visual Studio Updates are a mechanism we are using to provide ongoing value throughout the year to our Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server customers. These updates will provide features to support the latest software trends in the market, and also offer an easy way to deploy bug fixes.

Today we are excited to announce that Visual Studio Update 2 is now RTM!  - see Soma’s Blog Post with the official announcement.

Modern application lifecycle has been improved in Visual Studio Update 2 with significant improvements to both quality enablement and agile development.  Agile development has been made easier and more flexible with Work Item enhancements (tags, filtering, sharing), Kanban board customization and improved user interfaces.  Quality Enablement now supports a lightweight browser-based test management and execution to enable development teams to easily view/edit tests and your customers to run tests in a way that needs no installation on the system being tested and works non-Windows platforms; to decrease the time needed to continuously enable quality in software projects.

Business Application Development focuses on improving the line of business development and developer experience.  Highlights for the line of business developers include: HTML Client and SharePoint support for LightSwitch.  The developer experience improvements in the IDE include a new theme, Code Map debugger integration and performance in key areas areas including XAML design and Code Map rendering.

Download RTM Release

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=273878

Found an issue?

If you find issues or have concerns please let us know, we really value your input!

Learn More – Feature Highlight Videos

Visual Studio Toolbox – Visual Studio Update 2 Feature Highlights

In this episode of Visual Studio Toolbox Orville McDonald and Dmitry Lyalin show us some of their favorite new features of Update 2

Click Here to Watch Video– Visual Studio Toolbox: Visual Studio Update 2 (Channel9)

Three new Visual Studio how-to Videos

The Visual Studio 2012 start page videos were originally created as a short primer for “why” you would want to use a new feature (but not intended as full training). With this in mind the goal was to fit as much into three minutes as possible and purposefully we sped up or skipped the step-by-step instructions.

With Update 2 we have added three new videos and based on feedback we have enclosed more of the step-by-step instructions and slowed down for pace of the content.

What’s New in Update 2 RTM Release?

Integrating ASP.NET and Web Tools into Visual Studio Update 2

While the ASP.NET and Web Tools update 2012.2 is not new; with Visual Studio Update 2 we have integrated it into the Visual Studio Update 2 setup process. This update makes no changes to the existing ASP.NET runtime, and so it is fully compatible with your existing projects and development environment. Whether you use Web Forms, MVC, Web API, or any other ASP.NET technology, there is something in this update for you.

Additional Feature Highlights

Team Foundation Server Version Control Enhancements

We have been introducing enhancements to version control in every sprint of Team Foundation Service.  Rest assured while i have not called out all these improvements during the CTPs we have not forgotten about the on premise users!

For Visual Studio Update 2 the on premise Team Foundation web portal now has the ability to Explore and Compare, show a Changeset summary and download the contents of your VC repo as a zip file– just to name a few of the version control improvements. 

Team Foundation Server 2012 compatibility with 2010 build Servers

To support customer investments in Team foundation Server 2010 and 32bit servers Team Foundation 2012 Update 2 has added backward compatibility to the Team Foundation Build 2010 Controllers. This means that you can keep all your TF Build 2010 Controllers and Agents on the same OS but move your TFS server forward to TFS 2012 Update 2.

(For detailed directions on how to do this please see Martin Hinshelwood’s great post: Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 supports 2010 Build Servers)

FAQ

How do we update the process template from Visual Studio 2012 RTM to Update 2?

While not a feature; one of the frequently asked questions for the Visual Studio Updates is: “How do upgrade my existing Team Projects so i can use the new functionality”?

To help with this Ewald Hofman created a blog post on this topic:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2013/04/12/upgrade-your-2012-process-template-from-rtm-to-update-2.aspx.

How can we create offline installer for Update 2?

The second most asked question i hear is “How do i download a disk layout of the the Visual Studio Update?”

Visual Studio Update setup has a /Layout command to do just this, please see Rob’s blog post on how to do this:

How to: Install Visual Studio 2012 Update 1 Offline

Feature Summary

In case you missed our previous blog posts on Update 2 CTP releases below you’ll find a summary of all the highlights for your reference.

Agile Planning

1. Work Item Filtering
   • Team Foundation Server Work Item Tagging
2. Kanban Board
   • Customize columns in the Team Foundation Kanban Board
3. Send Work Items using email
   • Email work items from query
   • Email work items from backlogs

Quality Enablement (Testing)

1. Windows Store
   • Windows Store App UI Responsiveness Analyzer (HTML/JavaScript)
   • Improvements in Windows Store Applications Unit Testing
   • Windows App Certification Kit (latest version)
2. Windows Phone
   • TDD for Windows Phone Unit Tests
3. Coded UI Testing
   • Extended cross browser support in Coded UI Testing 
   • Coded user interface testing support for Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 7
4. Web based Test Case Management      
   • Enable adding attachments to test outcomes
   • Enable pausing and resuming test execution
   • Enable adding attachments to test outcomes
   • Enable pausing and resuming test execution
   • Enable editing Test case during Test Execution
   • Inline editing of text of test steps and results in the test execution of the browser based test management 
5. Test Explorer Enhancements
   • Test Explorer group tests by Class
   • Test Explorer test playlists
   • Test Explorer test details improvements for Coded UI Tests
6. SharePoint
   • Microsoft SharePoint 2013 support in Coded UI Testing
   • Advanced SharePoint 2010 Load Testing
7. Unit Testing
   • Fakes now available in Visual Studio Premium
8. Microsoft Test Manager (MTM)
   • The ability to clone test cases in Microsoft Test Manager

Quality Enablement (Debugging)

1. Code Map
   • Code Map Debugger Integration and Responsiveness Improvements
2. IntelliTrace
   • SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint User Profile diagnostics support with IntelliTrace
   • Symbol Loading improvements for IntelliTrace and Profiler

Line of Business (LOB) Application Development

1. LightSwitch
   • LightSwitch HTML Client -  Support for HTML5 and the new SharePoint/0365 Apps Model
2. Blend, SketchFlow & XAML Editors
   • Blend for Visual Studio once again supports WPF, Silverlight and SketchFlow projects
   • Performance & reliability improvements when using the XAML design surfaces in Visual Studio and Blend and XAML editor in Visual Studio

Developer Experience

1. Web Based Version Control
   • Web version control Improvements
   • Web based version controlExplore and Compare
2. TFS Build
   • Team Foundation Server 2012 compatibility with 2010 build Servers
3. Team Explorer Enhancements
   • New Team Explorer Connectiondialog display multiple servers, TPCs and projects
4. TFS Upgrades & Availability
   • TFS Update 2 Offers Settings Preservation for In-Place Upgrades
   • Servicing in High Availability SQL Environments
5. Visual Studio IDE
   • New Blue Theme for Visual Studio IDE

Web Development

1. ASP.NET & Web Tools 2012.2 (Update 2) is included in Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 (no changes from stand-alone release)

Fixes

1. Update 2 contains various fixes, for a complete list please see: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2797912

If you find issues or have concerns please let us know, we really value your input!