C++ Language Updates in MSVC Build Tools v14.50 It has been some time since we have provided an update on MSVC progress, and this one comes with the latest major update to our IDE: Visual Studio 2026 version 18.0. This version of Visual Studio ships with the MSVC Build Tools version 14.50, which includes version 19.50 of the MSVC compiler. You can...

Introduction In this update, we continue the tradition of bucketing bugs into helpful categories for you all to filter through along with even more notes from the compiler team as to what, exactly, was fixed. This blog is also complemented by the recent Pure Virtual C++ pre-conference talk by RanDair Porter; so please check out RanDair's talk, "MS...

Introduction For this update, we have changed things up a little bit. We now have more distinct buckets of fixes/implemented features. This is to help guide readers who care about specific features to more easily see how the compiler front-end team is making progress on the things you care about. 17.12 notes for reference. C++23 Features As p...

Introduction In alignment with the Visual Studio 2022 version 17.12 release, and based upon feedback received from the community, the MSVC compiler team would like to provide greater visibility into the C++ language-level fixes for customer-reported issues that made it into the release. This is similar to how the standard library team publishes re...

Overview Introduction In our previous two (part 1, part 2) blog posts we discussed how Office was thinking holistically about header units. In this installment we’d like to share the concrete steps taken to integrate header units into the build of Microsoft Word, and their effect on build throughput. Throughout the...

In this follow-up blog, we will explore progress made towards getting header units working in the Office codebase. Overview Overview Last time we talked about how and why header units can be integrated into a large cross-platform codebase like Office. We discussed how header units helped surface conformance issue...

In this blog we will explore one change the MSVC compiler has implemented in an effort to improve the codegen quality of applications in debug mode. We will highlight what the change does, and how it could be extended for the future. If debug performance is something you care about for your C++ projects, then Visual Studio 2022 version 17.5 is maki...

.cameron { color: #4472c4; } C++20 has had a lot to offer and one feature in particular requires the most thought of all when integrating into our projects: C++ modules (or C++ header units in this particular case). In this blog we will show a real world case of integrating a new C++20 feature into a large codebase that we might all...

C++20 is here and has been supported in MSVC since 16.11, but today's post is not about how you can use it, but rather how we used it to effectively eliminate an entire class of runtime bugs by hoisting a check into compile-time. Let's get right into it! Humble beginnings In compiler design one of the very first things you need is a way to convey...

There is a lot of hype (and perhaps restraint) to using modules in projects. The general blocker tends to be build support, but even with good build support there is a distinct lack of useful resources for practices around moving projects to using named modules (not just header units). In this blog we will take a small project I created, analyze it...