It has been a couple of weeks since Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 RC was available for download, so I guess that many of you already have the chance to play with it a bit, but just let me go through the new capabilities and features for those that didn’t explore it in deep.

First say that as part of the continue integration that Microsoft is doing with Visual Studio, we have had a bunch of improvements during the last 9 months. Most of these like the Update 2 were put in place to bring us access to the new Universal Apps and the support to Multi-Device Hybrid Apps for Visual Studio.

You have to realize that Microsoft is doing a lot of efforts bringing the multi-platform and universal development to Visual Studio, for example, with the Multi-Device Hybrid Apps pluggin you will be able to develop hybrid apps that run on iOS, Android, Windows and Windows Phone, using a single project based on HTML and JavaScript.

With Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 (RC), Microsoft is bringing you more new features and improvements:

• CodeLens
• Code Map
• Visual Studio IDE improvements
• Windows Store Debugging
• Managed Memory Dump Analysis
• Graphics Debugging
• Performance & Diagnostics Hub
• Test Case Management
• Release Management
• Sharepoint Apps and ClickOnce

Between the Visual Studio IDE improvements you can find also the multi-monitor configuration for Windows 8 apps debugging and a configuration option to put CAPS or no caps menus in the IDE.

We will be visiting one by one all these new features but let’s talk for a second about one of my favorites and also the most simple one, it is the Multi-Monitor configuration with Windows Store Apps.

When debugging a Windows Store app with a multi-monitor configuration, we used to have problems with the screens dragging all the time the app to the secondary screen, now, Visual Studio will remember which monitor your app was last run on. Example:

Before:

After:

Let’s review all these features in further posts but in de meantime download the Update 3 RC and happy coding!

Eduardo Ortega

Resources:

• Update 3 Release candidate for Visual Studio 2013
• Download Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 RC
• Read the release announcement on Brian Harry’s blog
• Red about Update 3 on the Visual Studio Blog
• Learn more with the Visual Studio 2013 Update 3 RC release notes and the Update 3 RC KB article
• CodeLens for Git improvements in Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate Update 3 RC
• Code Lens for Git in Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate Update 3
• Use Application Insights to find out what users are doing with your app
• Release Management Update 3 CTP1 is now available with DSC Deployment Feature!
• Test Plan and Test Suite Customization with TFS2013 Update 3
• Code Map improvements in Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate Update 3 CTP1
• New Memory Usage Tool for WPF and Win32 Applications
• .NET Memory Analysis: Go to Source in Visual Studio 2013 Update 3
• Multiple Monitor Support for Windows Store Apps in Visual Studio 2013 Update 3