Top 5 Features Of Visual Studio 2015 IDE

I will explain some features of IDE but remember you will also find some of these features in other versions of visual studio.

IDE Features

1. Feedback
   
   You might never observed but there is a feedback icon on the top right corner of your visual studio main page. For convenience I have shown it below:
   
   
   
   On clicking this icon you will get some options as in the following:
   
   
   
   Let’s explore them one by one and see what they can do:
   
   
   • Report a problem: Whenever you have an exception or error in your code or any other problem occurring in visual studio, you can simply go to this and write about your problem. You will surely get a solution of your problem from some experts.
     
     
   • Provide suggestion: If you think that you have a good suggestion about visual studio then go here and write about it.
     
     
   • Rate this product: If you want to rate visual studio, you can go here.
     
     
   • Settings: This just allow you to select whether you want to participate in visual studio improvement program or not.
     
     
2. Notification
   
   There is another icon of notification at the top right corner of visual studio 2015.
   
   
   
   This notification system alerts you about:
   
   
   • An update for a component of visual studio.
   • An environment you might be interested in.
   • An update itself in visual studio.

   These notifications have 30 days expiry duration.
   

3. Quick launch
   
   Just next to feedback you will find a textbox:
   
   
   
   This search box is for searching quickly in menus, options, open documents, most recently used and NuGet packages. To search in these categories follow the shortcut @category name.
   
   
   
   
4. Scroll bar
   
   With the scroll bar in visual studio you cannot only scroll on the window but it also gives some information like the following:
   
   Cursor position: A blue line in scroll bar shows the position of the cursor.
   
   
   
   Errors: Red dots on scroll bar indicates that in which areas of the code there are some errors,
   
   
   
   Unused variables: Another thing that scroll bar in VS can represent is the part of the code where any unused variable exists. You will find green dots on scroll bar representing such areas.
   
   
5. Task List
   
   It helps you to create a list of programming tasks. To add a task in the task list you have to use TODO and UNDONE keywords.
   
   TODO represents the task to be done and UNDONE represent the task which is left incomplete.
   
   For example: // TODO load state from previously suspended application.
   
   It will appear in task list as:
   
   

Read more articles on Visual Studio 2015:

 

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Visual Studio 2015 Feature Series : #1 Account Management

Visual Studio 2015 Feature Series: #2 Window Layouts

Visual Studio 2015 Feature Series: #3 Code Editor Enhancements