Microsoft announced this week that it has released the first preview of Visual Studio 2022, the first 64-bit version of its developer environment. The product was revealed back in April.

“Our key goal with this preview is to test and tune the scalability of the new 64-bit platform,” x writes in the announcement post. “With the new 64-bit platform, Visual Studio is now capable of scaling to make use of all the system resources you have to improve the reliability of Visual Studio especially when working with complex solutions or using Visual Studio over long periods of time. The 64-bit conversion effort affects every part of Visual Studio, so the scope is much bigger than our usual previews.”

In addition to being a 64-bit application that supports more than 4 GB of RAM, Visual Studio 2022 features new personalization functionality, supports modern app development, and includes a refreshed user interface. You can learn more on the Microsoft Docs website.

One issue Microsoft doesn’t address in its announcement post is ARM: Current versions of Visual Studio are 32-bit, so they work in emulated mode in Windows 10 on ARM (WOA). WOA doesn’t currently support emulating 64-bit Intel-type (x64) applications, though Microsoft is currently testing this functionality via the Windows Insider Program. So it’s not clear if there will be a native ARM64 version of Visual Studio 2022, or if Microsoft will require developers to emulate the 64-bit (x64) version of the product.

Visual Studio 2022 Preview 1 can be installed side-by-side with previous versions of Visual Studio, so there’s no real danger in giving it a go. The preview is available in all three editions—Community, Pro, and Enterprise—and is free to use.

You can download Visual Studio 2022 Preview 1 from the Visual Studio website. A version for the Mac is expected soon.

Tagged with Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2022