First Look at Visual Studio 2012 Update 3 Shows Modest Updates

Microsoft has released its first preview of the third update to Visual Studio 2012 (VS2012). Compared to the prior updates, this seems to be a more subdued release which may be due to its primary focus on bug fixes as Brian Harry predicted at the time of Update 2's release.

Users of Team Foundation Server will receive the bulk of updates. Feature-wise, administrators will appreciate that build settings can be preserved when upgrading a TFS2012 instance. Several frustrating bugs are corrected that address everything from TFS interaction with SQL Server to observing the correct localization settings in the web installer.

Other improvements:

• C++ developers will benefit from a performance fix when debugging mixed mode applications.
• An unidentified error causing web projects to fail has been fixed.
• The IDE will once again support bringing the user to the line of a build error/warning for BizTalk projects.

Interestingly, in what is termed a “limitation in this preview”, the installation of CTP3 requires an Internet connection in any scenario, even with an ISO-based installation. Full release notes are located in this knowledge base article.  Users and administrators of TFS2012 are encouraged to review this article as there are a number of fixes that they may find beneficial.