Visual Studio 2017 Officially Released on March 7

After a series of release candidates, Microsoft officially launched Visual Studio 2017 on March 7, 2017. The date was deliberately chosen to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the original Visual Studio release in 1997 — a version that shipped with tools including Visual J++, Visual FoxPro, Visual InterDev, and Visual C++.

The release represented a major milestone not just in terms of age, but in the scope of changes Microsoft made to modernize the IDE, improve startup and solution-load performance, and expand support for modern development workflows including containers, cloud, and cross-platform .NET development.

What the Final Release Candidate Introduced

The last release candidate before the formal launch (build 26206, released February 7, 2017) focused primarily on stability and bug fixes, but it did include two notable feature additions:

• dotnet new Templating Engine (.NET Core): The final RC included integration of the new dotnet new templating engine for .NET Core projects. This allowed developers to scaffold new projects from a wider range of templates directly from the command line, improving the CLI-based development experience.
• Redgate SQL Prompt: Microsoft bundled the Redgate SQL Prompt into the release, providing IntelliSense-style code completion for SQL queries and scripts. This was a notable addition for developers working with SQL Server databases directly inside the IDE.

Bug Fixes in Build 26206

Beyond new features, the final RC addressed a range of bugs across several areas:

VSIX and Extension Projects

Developers building or maintaining Visual Studio extensions (VSIX projects) received targeted fixes in this build. Issues affecting debugging and build pipelines for extension projects were resolved, making it more reliable to develop and test extensions against the new VS2017 host.

.NET Core and ASP.NET Core

Several bugs affecting .NET Core and ASP.NET Core project workflows were fixed, including:

• Problems saving project files correctly
• NuGet package restore and resolution issues
• Bugs in the .NET Core command-line tooling integration

These fixes were important given that .NET Core support was one of the headline features of VS2017 and was still maturing at the time of release.

How to Get Visual Studio 2017

At the time of the release candidate, Microsoft offered two upgrade paths for developers:

1. In-place update: Developers already running an earlier VS2017 RC could update directly from within the IDE using the built-in update notification.
2. Fresh installer download: A standalone installer was available from Microsoft’s official website for clean installations.

VS2017 introduced a new modular installer that replaced the monolithic setup experience of previous versions, allowing teams to install only the workloads and components they actually needed — significantly reducing install size and time.

Why VS2017 Mattered for DevOps Teams

For DevOps and platform engineering teams, Visual Studio 2017 was significant for several reasons:

• Faster startup and load times: Microsoft made substantial performance investments, reducing the time to open the IDE and load large solutions.
• Improved .NET Core tooling: With .NET Core becoming the primary target for cross-platform and containerized workloads, better tooling integration mattered for CI/CD pipeline reliability.
• Docker and container support: VS2017 improved integration with Docker tooling, making it easier to develop and debug containerized ASP.NET Core applications locally.
• Live Unit Testing: Introduced in the Enterprise edition, this feature ran unit tests automatically in the background as code was edited, shortening the feedback loop without leaving the editor.

Further Reading

Full release notes for VS2017 RC build 26206 were published by Microsoft and detail every change included in that build. Developers evaluating the release or maintaining extensions should consult the official Microsoft documentation for the authoritative list of breaking changes and API updates.