What's New in Visual Basic 14 for Visual Studio 2015

Let me start with the most trivial change that's also the one you'll use the most: Right now, you type in a line of code, get a squiggly line under something indicating that you've got an error, fix the error … and then arrow off the line to see if the squiggle goes away. In Visual Studio 2015 with Visual Basic 14, you won't have to move off the line to have the squiggle go away: It will just go away.

The change you'll like best: You can view the results of a Lambda expression in Debug mode instead of getting that stupid "Evaluation of lambda expressions in this debugger" message.

Well, maybe you'll like this best: Shorter error messages in the Error List window. The Error List window, instead of showing variable names with all of their namespace prefixes, will now just use the base variable name. Your error messages might actually now fit in the Error List window.

The most important change that you should use more: Refactoring. Out of the box, C# developers have always had more refactoring support (encapsulating fields, for example) than Visual Basic developers. Now Visual Basic 14 developers get parity: select some code, right-click and select Quick Actions. A light bulb menu appears with all (and only) appropriate refactorings you can apply to the selected code.

The one you won't need very often but will really like when you do use it: Shared Projects. You can use a project's resources (source code, images, and the like) in other multiple projects.

And, finally, the one that will save you the most time: Your Visual Basic code should compile in half the time. Half. The. Time.