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Microsoft Supercharges Visual Studio Debugging/Profiling with Copilot
Microsoft unveiled a suite of AI-powered debugging and profiling tools for .NET developers, integrating GitHub Copilot directly into Visual Studio's diagnostic workflow. The recently announced Copilot Diagnostics toolset promises to transform how developers identify, understand, and resolve performance issues and bugs.
From 'Why Is This Broken?' to 'Here's the Fix'
The new toolset addresses a fundamental challenge in software development: the time-consuming nature of debugging and performance analysis, Microsoft said. As the company's Harshada Hole explained in the announcement, the goal is to help developers move "from asking 'why is this broken?' to 'oh, I see and here's the fix' in a fraction of the time."
The enhancement builds on Visual Studio's existing debugging capabilities while adding AI-powered insights that can analyze code context, suggest fixes, and explain complex scenarios in natural language.
Debugging Arsenal
The Copilot Debugging Toolbox includes several key features:
- Breakpoint & Tracepoint Copilot Suggestions eliminate manual setup by analyzing current context and suggesting exact conditional expressions or tracepoint actions. During a demonstration, presenters showed how Copilot can automatically suggest three possible conditions for breakpoints, helping developers remember syntax and get ideas for complex scenarios.
- Breakpoint Troubleshooting provides instant guidance when breakpoints fail to bind, walking developers through likely causes such as "mismatched symbols, incorrect build configurations, or optimized code paths."
[Click on image for larger view.] Breakpoint Troubleshooting (source: Microsoft).
- IEnumerable Visualizer with Copilot-Assisted LINQ Queries renders large collections in sortable, filterable tabular views while Copilot generates or refines LINQ queries based on natural language prompts. In one demonstration, a developer simply asked to "give me all cars" with negative prices, and Copilot created the appropriate LINQ expression and filtered the results.
- LINQ Query Hover with Copilot explains LINQ statements during debugging, evaluating them in context and highlighting potential inefficiencies without leaving the editor.
Exception and Variable Analysis
The Exception Assistance feature goes beyond traditional stack traces. When exceptions occur, Copilot summarizes errors, identifies likely causes, and offers targeted code fixes. In a live demonstration, Copilot successfully diagnosed a JSON deserialization issue by analyzing both the exception and the actual HTTP response data, determining that "the API is returning a JSON object with a products array, but we're trying to deserialize directly into a list of product objects."
[Click on image for larger view.] Exception Assistance (source: Microsoft).
Variable Analysis with Copilot allows developers to hover over variables and click the Copilot icon to see potential reasons for unexpected results. The feature works across DataTips, Autos, and Locals windows, turning debugging from "guesswork" into "detective work with a clear trail of evidence."
Return Value Analysis shows method return values inline during debugging, with Copilot providing explanations and validation in context. This feature, available since Visual Studio version 17.12, displays return values directly in the editor before the actual return occurs.
Parallel Stacks and Deadlock Detection
For complex multithreaded applications, the Parallel Stacks Deadlock Analysis feature generates thread summaries and provides insights for application state, possible deadlocks, hangs, and crashes. During a stock market simulation demonstration, Visual Studio detected a deadlock situation and Copilot explained that "there are two threads that are each waiting for a lock held by the other" with the root cause being "inconsistent locking order in this codebase."
Performance Profiling Gets AI Boost
The Copilot Profiling Toolbox introduces Auto Insights across CPU usage, Instrumentation, and .NET allocation tools. The CPU usage summary highlights hot paths, high-usage functions, and potential bottlenecks while Auto Insights pinpoints specific performance issues requiring attention.
In a practical video demonstration using the SharpZip project--one of the 100 most popular packages on NuGet with "tens of millions of downloads"--a presenter used Copilot to identify a performance optimization opportunity. Copilot suggested tuning a "slicing degree" parameter to match CPU cache sizes for better performance. After implementing the suggestion to use a 32K cache size, the benchmark performance nearly doubled from 138 milliseconds to significantly faster execution times.
The Ask Copilot feature allows developers to query specific insights and provides actionable guidance "from optimizing loops to reducing allocations and improving overall efficiency all directly within the debugger."
Context-Aware Problem Solving
Microsoft said a key strength of the new toolset is its context awareness. The system includes several context elements that enhance Copilot's understanding:
- Solution Context Element enables semantic search across entire codebases, helping developers quickly locate relevant code without manual browsing
- Debugger Context Element captures full debug state including current location, call stacks, locals, and application state when stopped in the debugger
- Output Log Context Element allows analysis of debug output logs to identify patterns and mismatches
During video demonstrations, presenters showed how these context elements enable Copilot to provide more accurate analysis than would be possible with code examination alone.
Unit Testing Integration
The toolset extends to unit testing scenarios with two key options for investigating test failures:
- Debug with Copilot creates debugging sessions specifically for failing tests, automatically placing breakpoints and walking through the debugging process
- Explain Failure with Copilot provides immediate analysis of test failures without requiring manual debugging sessions
Additionally, developers can profile unit tests to identify slow or memory-intensive tests, with the same Auto Insights functionality available for optimization guidance.
Visual Analysis Capabilities
The system also supports visual analysis through screenshot integration. Developers can capture screenshots of UI issues and paste them directly into Copilot prompts. In one demonstration, a developer identified and fixed a UX glitch in a total column display by simply taking a screenshot and asking Copilot to "fix the UX glitch with the total column in the order history page."
Beyond Current Capabilities
Microsoft indicates this represents just the beginning of AI-powered diagnostics. According to the announcement, "our upcoming, larger agentic experience will help you understand and fix performance issues without needing to be a profiling expert." The company promises that "more Copilot-assisted guidance is on the way, making it even easier and faster to navigate the full suite of profiling tools available in Visual Studio."
The toolset positions itself not as a replacement for debugging skills, but as a way to "cut out the repetitive, tedious work so you can focus on what really matters: solving problems and shipping features." As described in the announcement, Copilot serves as "a knowledgeable pair programmer inside your Visual Studio--one that helps you move faster, understand code more clearly, and catch issues before they slow you down."
The Copilot Diagnostics toolset for .NET is available now in the latest version of Visual Studio, representing a significant evolution in how developers approach debugging and performance optimization tasks.
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About the Author
David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.