As a.NET developer, I’ve spent most of my time coding on Windows machines. It’s only logical: Visual Studio is the richest development experience for building C# and VB.NET applications, and it only runs on Windowsright?

1. Uninstalling Visual Studio Code

When I joined Stormpath to work on our, I was handed a MacBook Pro and given an interesting challenge: can a Mac be an awesome.NET development platform? To my surprise, the answer is yes! I’ll share how I turned a MacBook Pro into the ultimate Visual Studio development machine. How to Run Visual Studio on a Mac Visual Studio doesn’t run natively on OS X, so my first step was to get Windows running on my MacBook Pro. (If you want an editor that does run natively, or might fit the bill).

There are multiple options for running Windows on a Mac. Every Mac comes with Apple’s Boot Camp software, which helps you install Windows into a separate partition.

To switch between OSes, you need to restart. Is a different animal: it runs Windows (or another guest OS) inside a virtual machine. This is convenient because you don’t have to restart your computer to switch over to Windows.

Instead, Windows runs in an OS X application window. I found that a combination of both worked best for me.

I installed Windows into a Boot Camp partition first, and then turned that partition into an active Parallels virtual machine. This way, I have the option of using Windows in the virtual machine, or restarting to run Windows natively at full speed. I was initially skeptical of the performance of a heavy application like Visual Studio running in a virtual machine.

The option to restart to Windows via Boot Camp gave me a fallback in case Visual Studio was sluggish. There are some minor disadvantages to this method: you can’t pause the virtual machine or save it to a snapshot. A non-Boot Camp virtual machine doesn’t have these limitations. This guide will work regardless of what type of virtual machine you create. After three months of serious use, and some tweaks, I’ve been very impressed with Parallels’ performance. I haven’t needed to boot directly to Windows at all. (For comparison, my host machine is a 15” mid-2015 MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB flash drive.) In the remainder of this guide, I’ll detail the steps I took to optimize both Parallels and Visual Studio to run at peak performance.

Installing Windows With Boot Camp and Parallels This part’s easy. I followed to install Windows in a separate partition.

Then, I installed Parallels and followed the to create a new virtual machine from the existing Boot Camp partition. Tweaking Parallels for Performance and Usability The Parallels team publishes on how to maximize the performance of your virtual machine. Here’s what I adopted: Virtual machine settings:. 2 virtual CPUs. 4096MB system memory.

256MB graphics memory Parallels options:. Optimization: Faster virtual machine, Adaptive hypervisor, Tune Windows for speed all turned on. Sharing: Shared cloud, SmartMount, and Access Windows folders from Mac turned off, as I didn’t need these for my workflow. I experimented with both of Parallels’ presentation modes, Coherence and Full Screen.

While it was cool to see my Windows apps side-by-side with OS X in Coherence mode, I found that the UI responsiveness (especially opening and closing windows and dialogs) felt sluggish. Because of this, I use Full Screen exclusively now. I have Windows full-screen on my external Thunderbolt display, and OS X on my laptop. If I need to use OS X on my large monitor, I can swipe the Magic Mouse to switch desktops. Adjusting OS X and Windows Features I fixed a few annoyances and performance drains right off the bat:. Function keys. If you’re using the Mac keyboard, you’ll want to change the function key behavior so the F1-F12 keys work correctly in Visual Studio.

From System Preferences – Keyboard, make sure Use all F1, F2, etc. Keys as standard function keys is checked.

With this turned on, hold Fn to use the Mac functions (brightness, volume, etc.) on F1-F12. With an external non-Mac keyboard, this isn’t an issue. Start menu. I’m using Windows 8, and the removal of the Start menu annoyed me. I clung to my old ways and installed to restore it.

Disable Windows visual effects. I turned off most of the Windows desktop manager visual effects by going to Control Panel – System and Security – Advanced system settings – Advanced – Performance – Settings – Visual Effects and choosing Adjust for best performance. However, I left Smooth edges of screen fonts checked because it improves text rendering on my monitor.

Installing Visual Studio and Helpful Extensions Installing Visual Studio is a piece of cake once the virtual machine is set up. I simply downloaded the latest release from MSDN and let the installer run. If you use an Apple Magic Mouse (as I do), Visual Studio tends to be overly eager to zoom the text size in and out as you swipe your finger over the mouse. The add-on fixes this annoyance. Improving Visual Studio for Performance I was impressed with how well Visual Studio performed under emulation.

With a large multi-project solution open, though, I saw some slowdowns. Through trial and error, I found a number of things that could be disabled to improve performance. You may not want to make all of the changes I did, so pick and choose your own list of tweaks:. Disable hardware-accelerated rendering. Unchecking Automatically adjust visual experience based on client performance, Enable rich client visual experience, and Use hardware graphics acceleration if available via Options – Environment made the UI feel much more responsive on my machine.

Start up to an empty environment. Starting up Visual Studio for the first time feels a lot snappier if you skip the default news page on startup. Select Empty environment under Options – Environment – Startup – At startup. Remove unused extensions.

Visual Studio ships with a number of extensions that you may not need. From Tools – Extensions and Updates – Installed, remove any extensions you aren’t actively using (you can always reinstall them later). I got rid of six extensions I didn’t need.

Disable extra debugging features. I turned off both Enable Diagnostic Tools while debugging and Show elapsed time PerfTip while debugging in Options – Debugging – General. I wasn’t using these debugging features, and debugging felt snappier after I disabled them.

Turn off the Navigation Bar. I found the code editor Navigation Bar to be unnecessary if the Solution Explorer is open. I disabled it via Options – Text Editor – All Languages – Navigation Bar. Disable CodeLens. CodeLens is a cool feature for collaboration, but it’s not part of my current workflow. I got rid of the CPU overhead by turning it off via Options – Text Editor – All Languages – CodeLens – Enable CodeLens.

Turn off Track Changes. When a file is open in the code editor, Visual Studio will represent recent changes by displaying small regions of green or yellow on the scroll bar. If you can live without this, turn off Track changes via Options – Text Editor – General for a small performance boost. Turn off Track Active Item. Squeeze out a little bit more UI performance out by ensuring Track Active Item in Solution Explorer is unchecked under Options – Projects and Solutions – General.

Visual Studio on a Mac: The Best of Both Worlds With these tweaks, I’ve come to love using Visual Studio on a Mac. The performance is good, and by running Windows in a virtual machine, I get the best of both OS worlds. Want to see what I’m building with this setup? Check out our on Github.

Do you have any other tricks you’ve used to improve Visual Studio performance? Any must-have add-ons that boost your productivity? Leave me a comment below!

Today we are releasing the following builds as Xcode 10 Beta 3 Web Preview. These versions include preview Xamarin SDK bindings and preview IDE compatibility for Apple’s release. Any bug reports about these preview Xamarin bindings are much appreciated! Products Released. Visual Studio for Mac 7.6.10.23. Xamarin.iOS 12.1.0.14.

Xamarin.Mac 5.1.0.11. Xamarin Profiler 1.6.3.456. Mono Framework 5.12.0.311.

Preview IDE compatibility package for Visual Studio 2017. Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin 4.11.1.1. for Visual Studio 2017 Installing on Mac. Select “Visual Studio Check for Updates”. In the “Update channel” combo box, select “Xcode 10.1 Previews” and press the “Switch Channel” button:. Once you switch, the builds will start to download automatically. Once they’re downloaded you’ll be prompted to restart and install the new builds.

To switch back to Stable, Beta, or Alpha builds, simply switch back to the appropriate channel. Installing IDE compatibility for Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8. Ensure that Visual Studio 2017 is up-to-date at version 15.8 and has the Mobile development with.NET workload installed. the combined IDE compatibility.vsix file. If your web browser saves the file with a.zip extension, rename it back to.vsix after download. Double-click the.vsix file to launch the VSIX Installer.

Be sure to select only your non-preview instance of Visual Studio 2017 when prompted. (This.vsix package is based on the Xamarin 15.8 release, so it is not fully compatible with Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9 Preview.). Click Install, and wait for the VSIX Installer to download and install the components. Uninstall steps If you wish to switch back from the Xcode 10.1 beta support previews to the default Xamarin versions bundled in Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8:. Navigate to Tools Extensions and Updates Installed. Locate the Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin (Alpha) item. Click the Uninstall button.

Close Visual Studio 2017 to allow the VSIX Installer to launch and complete the uninstall process. Today we are releasing the following builds as Xcode 10 GM Web Preview.

These versions include preview Xamarin SDK bindings and preview IDE compatibility for Apple’s release. Any bug reports about these preview Xamarin bindings are much appreciated!

Products Released. Xamarin.iOS 12.0.0.10. Xamarin.Mac 4.99.3.740. Visual Studio for Mac 7.6.6.14 Preview IDE compatibility package for Visual Studio 2017.

Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin 4.11.0.770. for Visual Studio 2017. Xamarin Remoted iOS Simulator. for Visual Studio 2017 Installing on Mac With this release, we’re introducing a new way to access the Xcode 10 preview support in Visual Studio for Mac.

From now on, you’ll be able to access all the necessary bits for Xcode 10 within the IDE, through an updater channel named “Xcode 10 Preview”. This Xcode channel operates the same way as our current Stable, Beta, and Alpha channels. To try these newest Xcode builds, do the following:. Select “Visual Studio Check for Updates”.

In the “Update channel” combo box, select “Xcode 10 Preview” and press the “Switch Channel” button:. Once you switch, the builds will start to download automatically. Once they’re downloaded you’ll be promted to restart and install the new builds.

To switch back to Stable, Beta, or Alpha builds, simply switch back to the appropriate channel. Today’s release to the Xcode channel contains the builds with support for the Xcode 10 GM seed. To get notified immediately of new builds, make sure to select the “Check Automatically” checkbox. Installing IDE compatibility for Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8 (This package is not yet available.

Uninstalling Visual Studio Code

It is in-progress and will be added to this blog post as soon as possible.). Ensure that Visual Studio 2017 is up-to-date at version 15.8 and has the Mobile development with.NET workload installed. the combined IDE compatibility.vsix file.

If your web browser saves the file with a.zip extension, rename it back to.vsix after download. Double-click the.vsix file to launch the VSIX Installer. Be sure to select only your non-preview instance of Visual Studio 2017 when prompted.

(This.vsix package is based on the Xamarin 15.8 release, so it is not fully compatible with Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9 Preview.). Click Install, and wait for the VSIX Installer to download and install the components. Uninstall steps If you wish to switch back from the Xcode 10 beta support previews to the default Xamarin versions bundled in Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8:. Navigate to Tools Extensions and Updates Installed. Locate the Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin (Alpha) item. Click the Uninstall button.

Close Visual Studio 2017 to allow the VSIX Installer to launch and complete the uninstall process. Today we are releasing the following builds as Xcode 10 Beta 6 Web Preview. These versions include preview Xamarin SDK bindings and preview IDE compatibility for Apple’s release. Any bug reports about these preview Xamarin bindings are much appreciated!

Products Released. Visual Studio for Mac 7.6.1.7. Xamarin.iOS 11.99.3.538. Xamarin.Mac 4.99.3.658. Preview IDE compatibility package for Visual Studio 2017.

Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin 4.11.0.758. for Visual Studio 2017 Installing on Mac With this release, we’re introducing a new way to access the Xcode 10 preview support in Visual Studio for Mac.

From now on, you’ll be able to access all the necessary bits for Xcode 10 within the IDE, through an updater channel named “Xcode 10 Preview”. This Xcode channel operates the same way as our current Stable, Beta, and Alpha channels. To try these newest Xcode builds, do the following:. Select “Visual Studio Check for Updates”.

In the “Update channel” combo box, select “Xcode 10 Preview” and press the “Switch Channel” button:. Once you switch, the builds will start to download automatically. Once they’re downloaded you’ll be promted to restart and install the new builds. To switch back to Stable, Beta, or Alpha builds, simply switch back to the appropriate channel. Today’s release to the Xcode channel contains the builds with support for Xcode 10 Beta 5.

We intend to continue to update the builds in this channel as we produce support for any new Xcode 10 betas which Apple may release in the weeks ahead. To get notified immediately of new builds, make sure to select the “Check Automatically” checkbox. Installing IDE compatibility for Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8. Ensure that Visual Studio 2017 is up-to-date at version 15.8 and has the Mobile development with.NET workload installed. the combined IDE compatibility.vsix file. If your web browser saves the file with a.zip extension, rename it back to.vsix after download. Double-click the.vsix file to launch the VSIX Installer.

Be sure to select only your non-preview instance of Visual Studio 2017 when prompted. (This.vsix package is based on the Xamarin 15.8 release, so it is not fully compatible with Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9 Preview.). Click Install, and wait for the VSIX Installer to download and install the components. Uninstall steps If you wish to switch back from the Xcode 10 beta support previews to the default Xamarin versions bundled in Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8:.

Navigate to Tools Extensions and Updates Installed. Locate the Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin (Alpha) item. Click the Uninstall button. Close Visual Studio 2017 to allow the VSIX Installer to launch and complete the uninstall process. Today we are releasing the following builds as Xcode 10 Beta 5 Web Preview. These versions include preview Xamarin SDK bindings and preview IDE compatibility for Apple’s release.

Any bug reports about these preview Xamarin bindings are much appreciated! Products Released. Visual Studio for Mac 7.5.4.5.

Xamarin.iOS 11.99.2.130. Xamarin.Mac 4.99.2.250. Preview IDE compatibility package for Visual Studio 2017. Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin 4.10.10.9. for Visual Studio 2017 Installing on Mac With this release, we’re introducing a new way to access the Xcode 10 preview support in Visual Studio for Mac. From now on, you’ll be able to access all the necessary bits for Xcode 10 within the IDE, through an updater channel named “Xcode 10 Preview”.

This Xcode channel operates the same way as our current Stable, Beta, and Alpha channels. To try these newest Xcode builds, do the following:. Select “Visual Studio Check for Updates”. In the “Update channel” combo box, select “Xcode 10 Preview” and press the “Switch Channel” button:. Once you switch, the builds will start to download automatically.

Once they’re downloaded you’ll be promted to restart and install the new builds. To switch back to Stable, Beta, or Alpha builds, simply switch back to the appropriate channel. Today’s release to the Xcode channel contains the builds with support for Xcode 10 Beta 5. We intend to continue to update the builds in this channel as we produce support for any new Xcode 10 betas which Apple may release in the weeks ahead. To get notified immediately of new builds, make sure to select the “Check Automatically” checkbox. Installing IDE compatibility for Visual Studio 2017 version 15.7. Ensure that Visual Studio 2017 is up-to-date at version 15.7 and has the Mobile development with.NET workload installed.

the combined IDE compatibility.vsix file. If your web browser saves the file with a.zip extension, rename it back to.vsix after download.

Double-click the.vsix file to launch the VSIX Installer. Hollyoaks teases a shock return for macbook. Be sure to select only your non-preview instance of Visual Studio 2017 when prompted. (This.vsix package is based on the Xamarin 15.7 release, so it is not fully compatible with Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8 Preview.). Click Install, and wait for the VSIX Installer to download and install the components.

Uninstall steps If you wish to switch back from the Xcode 10 beta support previews to the default Xamarin versions bundled in Visual Studio 2017 version 15.7:. Navigate to Tools Extensions and Updates Installed.

Locate the Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin (Alpha) item. Click the Uninstall button. Close Visual Studio 2017 to allow the VSIX Installer to launch and complete the uninstall process.

Today we are releasing the following builds as Xcode 10 Beta 3 Web Preview. These versions include preview Xamarin SDK bindings and preview IDE compatibility for Apple’s release. Note that these are standalone download links that are not yet published in the Visual Studio for Mac updater channels. As a result, Visual Studio for Mac will offer an “update” back to the current published updater channel versions when you have these versions installed. You will need to disregard that notification if you wish to keep using this Xcode 10 support preview. The Xcode 10 features will be added to the updater channels in the future, after Apple publishes the first non-preview version of Xcode 10 to the App Store.

Any bug reports about these preview Xamarin bindings are much appreciated! Products Released.

Xamarin.iOS 11.99.1.44. Xamarin.Mac 4.99.1.164. Preview IDE compatibility packages for Mac and Visual Studio 2017.

Visual Studio for Mac 7.5.4.5. Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin 4.10.10.8. for Visual Studio 2017 Installing on Mac. Ensure you are up-to-date with the current Visual Studio for Mac Stable versions. Ensure you have the Xcode 10 beta version installed from Apple.

You can optionally install this beta version alongside your non-beta Xcode. the Xamarin.iOS installer.pkg file and run it. Uninstall steps Navigate to Visual Studio Check for Updates, and install the current Xamarin.iOS version from the Stable updater channel. Installing IDE compatibility for Visual Studio 2017 version 15.7. Ensure that Visual Studio 2017 is up-to-date at version 15.7 and has the Mobile development with.NET workload installed. the combined IDE compatibility.vsix file. If your web browser saves the file with a.zip extension, rename it back to.vsix after download.

Double-click the.vsix file to launch the VSIX Installer. Be sure to select only your non-preview instance of Visual Studio 2017 when prompted. (This.vsix package is based on the Xamarin 15.7 release, so it is not fully compatible with Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8 Preview.). Click Install, and wait for the VSIX Installer to download and install the components.

Uninstall steps If you wish to switch back from the Xcode 10 beta support previews to the default Xamarin versions bundled in Visual Studio 2017 version 15.7:. Navigate to Tools Extensions and Updates Installed.

Locate the Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin (Alpha) item. Click the Uninstall button.

Close Visual Studio 2017 to allow the VSIX Installer to launch and complete the uninstall process. Today we are releasing the following builds as Xcode 10 Web Preview 1. These versions include preview Xamarin SDK bindings and preview IDE compatibility for Apple’s release. Note that these are standalone download links that are not yet published in the Visual Studio for Mac updater channels.

As a result, Visual Studio for Mac will offer an “update” back to the current published updater channel versions when you have these versions installed. You will need to disregard that notification if you wish to keep using this Xcode 10 support preview. The Xcode 10 features will be added to the updater channels in the future, after Apple publishes the first non-preview version of Xcode 10 to the App Store.

Any bug reports about these preview Xamarin bindings are much appreciated! Products Released. Xamarin.iOS 11.99.0.93. Xamarin.Mac 4.99.0.93. Preview IDE compatibility packages for Mac and Visual Studio 2017.

Visual Studio for Mac 7.5.4.3. Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin 4.10.10.7. for Visual Studio 2017 Installing on Mac. Ensure you are up-to-date with the current Visual Studio for Mac Stable versions. Ensure you have the Xcode 10 beta version installed from Apple.

You can optionally install this beta version alongside your non-beta Xcode. the Xamarin.iOS installer.pkg file and run it. Uninstall steps Navigate to Visual Studio Check for Updates, and install the current Xamarin.iOS version from the Stable updater channel.

Installing IDE compatibility for Visual Studio 2017 version 15.7. Ensure that Visual Studio 2017 is up-to-date at version 15.7 and has the Mobile development with.NET workload installed.

the combined IDE compatibility.vsix file. If your web browser saves the file with a.zip extension, rename it back to.vsix after download. Double-click the.vsix file to launch the VSIX Installer.

Be sure to select only your non-preview instance of Visual Studio 2017 when prompted. (This.vsix package is based on the Xamarin 15.7 release, so it is not fully compatible with Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8 Preview.). Click Install, and wait for the VSIX Installer to download and install the components.

Uninstall steps If you wish to switch back from the Xcode 10 beta support previews to the default Xamarin versions bundled in Visual Studio 2017 version 15.7:. Navigate to Tools Extensions and Updates Installed. Locate the Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin (Alpha) item.

Click the Uninstall button. Close Visual Studio 2017 to allow the VSIX Installer to launch and complete the uninstall process. We are releasing the second preview of our next major release, called 15.8. This release aligns with Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8 Preview 2 and Visual Studio 2017 for Mac version 7.6 Preview 2.

As this is a preview release, there are some known issues and the possibility of new issues being found during testing. Please check out the product release notes to see all the fixes and known issues. Bug reports are welcome. If you see any new issue with these versions, please Report a Problem. Products Released. Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin. (Windows) (Mac).

Xamarin.iOS 11.11.0.331. Xamarin.Mac 4.5.0.331.

Xamarin.Android 8.3.99.12. Xamarin Profiler 1.6.3.400. Mono Framework MDK 5.12.0.260. Installing. Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8 Preview –.

Visual Studio 2017 for Mac – You can switch back to the non-preview versions at any time by launching your side-by-side non-preview installation of Visual Studio 2017 and switching to the Stable updater channel in Visual Studio for Mac. 15.8 Release History Preview 2 – This Release Preview 1 –. We are publishing a servicing update for our current major release called 15.7. This update adds SDK bindings and IDE compatibility for Apple’s Xcode 9.4 Release and addresses top issues from the version 15.7 Release. This release aligns with Visual Studio 2017 version 15.7.3 and Visual Studio 2017 for Mac version 7.5.2. Please check out the product release notes to see all the fixes and known issues for this release. Bug reports are welcome.

If you see any new issue with these versions, please Report a Problem. Products Released.

Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin. (Windows) (Mac). Xamarin.iOS 11.12.0.4. Xamarin.Mac 4.4.1.193. Xamarin.Android 8.3.3.2. Xamarin Profiler 1.6.2.165. Mono Framework 5.10.1.57.

Installing. Visual Studio 2017 for Mac – Previous Versions Using the latest versions is recommended. The previous versions of the Xamarin and Mono packages from the Xamarin 15.7.2 release are listed below for reference.

For Mac the previous versions are:. Xamarin.iOS 11.10.1.178 ( d15-7 branch),. Xamarin.Android 8.3.0.19 ( d15-7 branch),. Xamarin.Mac 4.4.1.178 ( d15-7 branch),. Mono Framework 5.10.1.47,.

Xamarin Profiler 1.6.2.162,. For Windows the previous versions are:. Visual Studio 2017 Tools for Xamarin 4.10.0.448. Xamarin Profiler 1.6.2.162,. (See also ).